Big Bang nucleosynthesis constraints on brane cosmologies

We examine constraints from Big Bang nucleosynthesis on type II Randall-Sundrurn brane cosmologies with both a dark radiation component and a quadratic term that depends on the 5-dimensional Planck mass, M-5. Using limits on the abundances of deuterium and helium-4, we calculate the allowed region in the M-5-dark radiation plane and derive the precise BBN bound on M-5 alone with no dark radiation: M-5 > 13 TeV. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.