Inhomogeneous big-bang nucleosynthesis in light of recent observations

WP consider inhomogeneous big-bang nucleosynthesis in light of the present observational situation. We give updated limits to the baryon-to-photon ratio and Rb and show that the inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis may alleviate the tension between He-4 and D observations. The recent Kamiokande results are shown to strongly disfavor the decaying tau neutrino solution to this tension, The possible sources of baryon inhomogeneity include the QCD and electroweak phase transitions (EWPT). It is found that EWPT produces a distinct "beer foam" geometry of inhomogeneity, but that the distance scale is too small for them to have a large effect on nucleosynthesis; the effect may still be larger than some of the other small corrections recently incorporated to SBBN codes. [S0556-2821(99)01108-X].