Constraining the helium abundance with CMB

Abstract

We consider for the first time the ability of present-day cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies data to determine the primordial helium mass fraction, Y_p. We find that CMB data alone gives the confidence interval 0.160 < Y_p < 0.501 (at 68% c.l.). We analyse the impact on the baryon abundance as measured by CMB and discuss the implications for big bang nucleosynthesis. We identify and discuss correlations between the helium mass fraction and both the redshift of reionization and the spectral index. We forecast the precision of future CMB observations, and find that Planck alone will measure Y_p with error-bars of 5%. We point out that the uncertainty in the determination of the helium fraction will have to be taken into account in order to correctly estimate the baryon density from Planck-quality CMB data.

Revised discussion of polarization and reionization history, references updated, results unchanged. Matches the version accepted by PRD

References in corpus (46)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• Evidence for Reionization at z ~ 6: Detection of a Gunn-Peterson Trough in a z=6.28 Quasar
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) First Year Observations: TE Polarization
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Parameter Estimation Methodology
• A New Calculation of the Recombination Epoch
• Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization from the Spectra of z~6 Quasars
• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis Predictions for Precision Cosmology
• How exactly did the Universe become neutral?
• Cosmological bounds on neutrino degeneracy improved by flavor oscillations
• Primordial Lithium and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• The Universe Was Reionized Twice
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis in Light of WMAP
• A precision calculation of the effective number of cosmological neutrinos
• The Reionization History at High Redshifts I: Physical Models and New Constraints from CMB Polarization
• Determining Neutrino Mass from the CMB Alone
• Helium abundance in the most metal-deficient blue compact galaxies: I Zw 18 and SBS 0335-052
• Analytical treatment of neutrino asymmetry equilibration from flavour oscillations in the early universe
• Stringent Constraints on Cosmological Neutrino-Antineutrino Asymmetries from Synchronized Flavor Transformation
• Neutrino masses and the number of neutrino species from WMAP and 2dFGRS
• A New Measurement of the Primordial Abundance of Deuterium: Toward Convergence with the Baryon Density from the CMB?
• Heavy sterile neutrinos: Bounds from big-bang nucleosynthesis and SN 1987A
• Efficient Cosmological Parameter Estimation from Microwave Background Anisotropies
• Effective number of neutrinos and baryon asymmetry from BBN and WMAP
• Probing the Reionization History of the Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
• Constraining neutrino physics with BBN and CMBR
• Temperature Bias and the Primordial Helium Abundance Determination
• Stellar Mixing and the Primordial Lithium Abundance
• Cosmological implications of a Relic Neutrino Asymmetry
• Model-Independent Reionization Observables in the CMB
• The Impact of an Extra Background of Relativistic Particles on the Cosmological Parameters derived from Microwave Background Anisotropies
• The Reionization History at High Redshifts II: Estimating the Optical Depth to Thomson Scattering from CMB Polarization
• A comparison of cosmological Boltzmann codes: are we ready for high precision cosmology?
• The effect of collisional enhancement of Balmer lines on the determination of the primordial helium abundance
• Detection of He II reionization in the SDSS quasar sample
• Measuring the cosmological background of relativistic particles with WMAP
• Constraints on the cosmic neutrino background
• Measuring $\alpha$ in the Early Universe: CMB Temperature, Large-Scale Structure and Fisher Matrix Analysis
• The standard and degenerate primordial nucleosynthesis versus recent experimental data
• Ionization history of the cosmic plasma in the light of the recent CBI and future PLANCK data
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: an accurate determination of light element yields
• Addendum to: Update on neutrino mixing in the early Universe
• Active-Sterile neutrino oscillations and BBN+CMBR constraints
• Neutrino-Mixing-Generated Lepton Asymmetry and the Primordial ${}^4$He Abundance
• How is the Reionization Epoch Defined?
• Overproduction of primordial helium-4 in the presence of neutrino oscillations

Cited by in corpus (49)

• Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Likelihoods and Parameters from the WMAP data
• Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis: from precision cosmology to fundamental physics
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmological Parameters from the 2008 Power Spectra
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmological parameters from three seasons of data
• Applications of Bayesian model selection to cosmological parameters
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis for the New Cosmology: Determining Uncertainties and Examining Concordance
• Nuclear Reaction Network for Primordial Nucleosynthesis: a detailed analysis of rates, uncertainties and light nuclei yields
• The oscillation effects on thermalization of the neutrinos in the universe with low reheating temperature
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 and 218 GHz from the 2008 Southern Survey
• Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE: Cosmological Parameters
• The Helium abundance and Delta Y / Delta Z in Lower Main Sequence stars
• Using BBN in cosmological parameter extraction from CMB: a forecast for Planck
• Measuring $\alpha$ in the Early Universe: CMB Polarization, Reionization and the Fisher Matrix Analysis
• Cosmological Hints of Modified Gravity ?
• Constraints on the Variation of G from Primordial Nucleosynthesis
• Axion constraints in non-standard thermal histories
• Einstein, Planck and Vera Rubin: relevant encounters between the Cosmological and the Quantum Worlds
• The $H_0$ and ${\sigma }_8$ tensions and the scale invariant spectrum
• Do observations prove that cosmological neutrinos are thermally distributed?
• Constraining Fundamental Physics with Future CMB Experiments
• Distinguishing between Neutrinos and time-varying Dark Energy through Cosmic Time
• Do joint CMB and HST data support a scale invariant spectrum?
• Revisiting the Constraint on the Helium Abundance from CMB
• The Cosmological Evolution of the Average Mass Per Baryon
• Primordial Helium Abundance from CMB: a constraint from recent observations and a forecast
• WMAP 5-year constraints on lepton asymmetry and radiation energy density: Implications for Planck
• Neutrino statistics and big bang nucleosynthesis
• Approximate Analytic Spectra of Reionized CMB Anisotropies and Polarization generated by Relic Gravitational Waves
• What does cosmology tell us about the mass of thermal-relic dark matter?
• Probing neutrino physics with a self-consistent treatment of the weak decoupling, nucleosynthesis, and photon decoupling epochs
• Constraints on neutrino masses from WMAP5 and BBN in the lepton asymmetric universe
• Effects of CMB temperature uncertainties on cosmological parameter estimation
• Using Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to Extend CMB Probes of Neutrino Physics
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with Independent Neutrino Distribution Functions
• New constraint on the cosmological background of relativistic particles
• Early reionization by decaying particles and cosmic microwave background radiation
• Relaxed constraints on neutrino oscillation parameters
• Planck and reionization history: a model selection view
• SCoPE: An efficient method of Cosmological Parameter Estimation
• More General BBN Constraints on Neutrino Oscillations Parameters - Relaxed or Strengthened
• Bound Dark Energy: towards understanding the nature of the Dark Energy
• Interacting light thermal-relic dark matter: self-consistent cosmological bounds
• Sterile Neutrinos in astrophysical and cosmological sauce
• Neutrino Oscillations and the Early Universe
• Axion mechanism of Sun luminosity, dark matter and extragalactic background light