Cosmological Implications of Two Conflicting Deuterium Abundances

Abstract

Constraints on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and on cosmological parameters from conflicting deuterium observations in different high red-shift QSO systems are discussed. The high deuterium observations by Carswell et al., Songaila et al., and Rugers & Hogan is consistent with 4He and 7Li observations and Standard BBN (N_nu =3) and allows N_nu \leq 3.6 at 95% C.L., but is inconsistent with local observations of D and 3He in the context of conventional theories of stellar and Galactic evolution. In contrast, the low deuterium observations by Tytler, Fan & Burles and Burles & Tytler are consistent with the constraints from local Galactic observations, but require N_nu = 1.9 +/- 0.3 at 68% C.L., excluding Standard BBN at 99.9% C.L., unless the systematic uncertainties in the 4He observations have been underestimated by a large amount. The high and low primordial deuterium abundances imply, respectively, Omega_B h^2 = 0.005 - 0.01 and Omega_B h^2 = 0.02 - 0.03 at 95% C.L. When combined with the high baryon fraction inferred from x-ray observations of rich clusters, the corresponding total mass densities (for 50 \le H_0 \le 90) are Omega_M = 0.05 - 0.20 and Omega_M = 0.2 - 0.7, respectively (95\% C.L.) The range of Omega_M corresponding to high D is in conflict with dynamical constraints (Omega_M > 0.2 - 0.3) and with the shape parameter constraint (Gamma = Omega_M h = 0.25 +/- 0.05) from large scale structure formation in CDM and Lambda-CDM models.