Mainz 2012 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 3: Astroteilchenphysik

HK 3.6: Talk

Monday, March 19, 2012, 15:30–15:45, RW 3

Thermal Leptogenesis -- Towards a complete quantum mechanical calculation in a thermal bath — •Janine Hütig, Sebastian Mendizabal, and Owe Philipsen — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Deutschland

The observed baryon asymmetry of the universe is well described by the scenario of thermal leptogenesis, where the out-of-equilibrium decay of a heavy majorana neutrino in the plasma of the early universe causes a lepton asymmetry which is later converted to baryons. This picture is consistent with neutrino oscillation experiments and also explains the smallness of the ordinary neutrino mass. Via Kadanoff-Baym equations one can compute the lepton asymmetry completely in a quantum mechanical way. However, the current results have an uncertainty of at least one order of magnitude, since gauge interactions with the thermal bath are not included. In this talk the important contributions are shown and the results are compared with the previous ones.