Primordial Deuterium and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: A Tale of Two Abundances
| dc.creator | Steigman, Gary | |
| dc.date | 1996-10-15 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:22:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:22:05Z | |
| dc.description | Recent confrontations of the predictions of standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN) with the primordial abundances of the light nuclides inferred from observational data reveal a conflict. Simply put, compared to theoretical expectations the inferred primordial abundances of either deuterium or helium-4 (or both) are ``too small". Here I outline the ``tension" between D and $^4$He in the context of SBBN. The incipient crisis for SBBN may be resolved by observations of deuterium in nearly pristine environments such as the high-redshift, low-metallicity QSO absorbers. At present the big bang abundances of deuterium inferred from such data fall into two, apparently mutually exclusive, groups. I describe the deuterium dichotomy and its implications for SBBN as well as for cosmology in general. | |
| dc.description | To appear in the Proceedings of the IAGUSP Workshop on Young Galaxies and QSO Absorbers (Santos, Brazil; April 8-11, 1996), eds. S. M. Viegas, R. Gruenwald & R. R. de Carvalho. Latex with six embedded postscript figures | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9610113 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9610113 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/10745 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Primordial Deuterium and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: A Tale of Two Abundances | |
| dc.type | text |