Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-62/3/ii/solution

During radiation domination, the effective number of relativistic energy degrees of freedom, denoted , gives the energy density
The paper's is this ; it is not the conventionally normalized effective number of neutrino species. With the specified reduced Planck mass, the Friedmann equation reads , whence
Write the weak interaction conversion rate as . The ratio scales as , so it falls during cooling: conversion eventually becomes too slow to maintain neutron-proton chemical equilibrium. Equating the conversion and expansion rates gives
On suppressing the numerical coefficient, the cosmological weak freeze-out temperature is consequently
The one-sixth power reflects a balance between a conversion rate proportional to and a Hubble parameter proportional to .

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