Nucleosynthesis Predictions and High-Precision Deuterium Measurements

Abstract

Two new high-precision measurements of the deuterium abundance from absorbers along the line of sight to the quasar PKS1937--1009 were presented. The absorbers have lower neutral hydrogen column densities (N(HI) $\approx$ 18\,cm${}^{-2}$) than for previous high-precision measurements, boding well for further extensions of the sample due to the plenitude of low column density absorbers. The total high-precision sample now consists of 12 measurements with a weighted average deuterium abundance of D/H = $2.55\pm 0.02\times 10^{-5}$. The sample does not favour a dipole similar to the one detected for the fine structure constant. The increased precision also calls for improved nucleosynthesis predictions. For that purpose we have updated the public AlterBBN code including new reactions, updated nuclear reaction rates, and the possibility of adding new physics such as dark matter. The standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis prediction of D/H = $2.456\pm 0.057\times 10^{-5}$ is consistent with the observed value within 1.7 standard deviations.

10 pages, 5 figures, conference proceedings from VarCosmoFun 2016

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Improved constraints on lepton asymmetry from the cosmic microwave background
• GUT Physics in the era of the LHC
• Prospects and Limitations for Constraining Light Relics with Primordial Abundance Measurements