Baryon inhomogeneities due to cosmic string wakes at the quark-hadron transition

Abstract

Baryon inhomogeneities generated during the quark-hadron transition may alter the abundances of light elements if they persist up to the time of nucleosynthesis. These inhomogeneities survive up to the nucleosynthesis epoch if they are separated by a distance of at least a few metres. In this work we present a model where large sheets of these inhomogeneities separated by a distance of a few km are formed by cosmic string wakes during the quark-hadron transition. The effect of these sheets on nucleosynthesis will also put constraints on the various cosmic string parameters.