Constraining the helium abundance with CMB

dc.creatorTrotta, Roberto
dc.creatorHansen, Steen H.
dc.date2003-06-27
dc.date2003-10-13
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T08:19:27Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T08:19:27Z
dc.descriptionWe 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.
dc.descriptionRevised discussion of polarization and reionization history, references updated, results unchanged. Matches the version accepted by PRD
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0306588
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0306588
dc.identifierPhys.Rev. D69 (2004) 023509
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevD.69.023509
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/134766
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleConstraining the helium abundance with CMB
dc.typetext

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