Chaotic amplification of neutrino chemical potentials by neutrino oscillations in big bang nucleosynthesis

We investigate in detail the parameter space of active-sterile neutrino oscillations that amplifies neutrino chemical potentials at the epoch of big bang nucleosynthesis. We calculate the magnitude of the amplification and show evidence of chaos in the amplification process. We also discuss the implications of the neutrino chemical potential amplification in big bang nucleosynthesis. It is shown that with a ∼1 eV νe, the amplification of its chemical potential by active-sterile neutrino oscillations can lower the effective number of neutrino species at big bang nucleosynthesis to significantly below three. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society