Quark mass variation and its effect on nuclear binding

Abstract

We consider the variations of the nucleon mass and the masses of the mesons typically used in a one-boson exchange model arising from possible changes in light quark masses. These results are used to calculate the corresponding changes of the energy of the ¹S0 anti-bound state and the binding energies of ²H, ³H, and other nuclei. The possible consequences for the standard scenario for big bang nucleosynthesis are discussed [9]. In particular the possible solution of the ⁷Li problem through a variation of quark masses is not supported.