Improved constraints on the variation of the weak scale from Big Bang nucleosynthesis

A bstract We present an improved calculation of the light element abundances in the framework of Big Bang nucleosynthesis as a function of the Higgs vacuum expectation value v . We compare the methods of our calculation to previous literature including the recently published work of Burns et al. [ 1 ]. The PDG result for the 4 He abundance can be explained within 2 σ by −0 . 014 ≤ δv/v ≤ 0 . 026, for deuterium we find the constraint −0 . 005 ≤ δv/v ≤ −0 . 001. These bounds are more stringent than what was found earlier.