The primordial deuterium abundance of the most metal-poor damped Lyα system

Journal Article · Thu Oct 20 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/148· OSTI ID:22868570

Cooke, Ryan J. ^[1]; Pettini, Max ^[2]; Nollett, Kenneth M. ^[3]; Jorgenson, Regina ^[4]

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1. UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
2. Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Physics, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States)
4. Physics Department, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301 (United States)

We report the discovery and analysis of the most metal-poor damped Lyα (DLA) system currently known, which also displays the Lyman series absorption lines of neutral deuterium. The average [O/H] abundance of this system is [O/H] = −2.804 ± 0.015, which includes an absorption component with [O/H] = −3.07 ± 0.03. Despite the unfortunate blending of many weak D i absorption lines, we report a precise measurement of the deuterium abundance of this system. Using the six highest-quality and self-consistently analyzed measures of D/H in DLAs, we report tentative evidence for a subtle decrease of D/H with increasing metallicity. This trend must be confirmed with future high-precision D/H measurements spanning a range of metallicity. A weighted mean of these six independent measures provides our best estimate of the primordial abundance of deuterium, 10{sup 5} (D/H){sub P} = 2.547 ± 0.033 (log{sub 10} (D/H){sub P}=−4.5940±0.0056). We perform a series of detailed Monte Carlo calculations of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) that incorporate the latest determinations of several key nuclear reaction cross-sections, and propagate their associated uncertainty. Combining our measurement of (D/H){sub P} with these BBN calculations yields an estimate of the cosmic baryon density, 100 Ω{sub B,0} h {sup 2}(BBN) = 2.156 ± 0.020, if we adopt the most recent theoretical determination of the d(p,γ){sup 3}He reaction rate. This measure of Ω{sub B,0} h {sup 2} differs by ∼2.3σ from the Standard Model value estimated from the Planck observations of the cosmic microwave background. Using instead a d(p,γ){sup 3}He reaction rate that is based on the best available experimental cross-section data, we estimate 100 Ω{sub B,0} h {sup 2}(BBN) = 2.260 ± 0.034, which is in somewhat better agreement with the Planck value. Forthcoming measurements of the crucial d(p,γ){sup 3}He cross-section may shed further light on this discrepancy.

• OSTI ID: 22868570
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 830; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
BARYONS
COSMOLOGY
CROSS SECTIONS
DENSITY
DEUTERIUM
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
GAMMA RADIATION
HELIUM 3
LYMAN LINES
METALLICITY
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
PROTON REACTIONS
QUASARS
REACTION KINETICS
RELICT RADIATION
STANDARD MODEL