Inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis revisited

We reanalyze the allowed parameters for inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis in light of the WMAP constraints on the baryon-to-photon ratio eta and a recent measurement which has set the neutron lifetime to be 878.5 +/- 0.7 +/- 0.3 sec. For a set baryon-to-photon ratio eta the new lifetime reduces the mass fraction of He-4 by 0.0015 but does not significantly change the abundances of other isotopes. This enlarges the region of concordance between He-4 and deuterium in the parameter space of eta and the IBBN distance scale r(i). The Li-7 abundance can be brought into concordance with observed He-4 and deuterium abundances by using depletion factors as high as 9.3. The WMAP constraints, however, severely limit the allowed comoving (T=100 GK) inhomogeneity distance scale to r(i)approximate to(1.3-2.6)x10(5) cm.