Measurements of The Primordial D/H Abundance Towards Quasars

Abstract

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is the synthesis of the light nuclei, Deuterium (D or 2H), 3He, 4He and 7Li during the first few minutes of the universe. In this review we concentrate on recent data which give the primordial deuterium (D) abundance.We have measured the primordial D/H in gas with very nearly primordial abundances. We use the Lyman series absorption lines seen in the spectra of quasars. We have measured D/H towards three QSOs, while a fourth gives a consistent upper limit. All QSO spectra are consistent with a single value for D/H: 3.325+0.22−0.25X10−5. From about 1994 − 1996, there was much discussion of the possibility that some QSOs show much higher D/H, but the best such example was shown to be contaminated by H, and no other no convincing examples have been found. Since high D/H should be much easier to detect, and hence it must be extremely rare or non-existent.The new D/H measurements give the most accurate value for the baryon to photon ratio, η, and hence the cosmological baryon density: ωb = 0.0190 ± 0.0009 (1σ) A similar density is required to explain the amount of Lyα absorption from neutral Hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshift z ≃ 3, and to explain the fraction of baryons in local clusters of galaxies. The D/H measurements lead to predictions for the abundances of the other light nuclei, which generally agree with measurements. The remaining differences with some measurements can be explained by a combination of measurement and analysis errors or changes in the abundances after BBN. The measurements do not require physics beyond the standard BBN model. Instead, the agreement between the abundances is used to limit the non-standard physics.