The Primordial Helium Abundance
arXiv:0811.2980
Abstract
I present a brief review on the determination of the primordial helium abundance by unit mass, Yp. I discuss the importance of the primordial helium abundance in: (a) cosmology, (b) testing the standard big bang nucleosynthesis, (c) studying the physical conditions in H II regions, (d) providing the initial conditions for stellar evolution models, and (e) testing the galactic chemical evolution models.
27 pages, 8 figures. Appeared in Current Science, vol. 95, pg. 1165-1176, 2008. (http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/nov102008/1165.pdf)
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