Skip to main content
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Simons Foundation, member institutions, and all contributors. Donate
arXiv logo
Cornell University Logo

Astrophysics

arXiv:astro-ph/9602050 (astro-ph)
[Submitted on 10 Feb 1996]

Title:Cosmological Implications of the First Measurement of the Local ISM Abundance of $^3$He

Authors:Michael S. Turner, James W. Truran, David N. Schramm, Craig J. Copi
View PDF
Abstract: Deuterium plays a crucial role in testing big-bang nucleosynthesis. Its chemical evolution, while simple (it is burned to $^3$He), is intertwined with the more complicated evolution of $^3$He. Gloeckler \& Geiss' new measurement of the $^3$He abundance and the HST measurement of D, both in the local ISM today, can be compared to the pre-solar nebula abundances of D and $^3$He. Within the uncertainties, the sum of D + $^3$He relative to hydrogen is unchanged. This provides some validation of the cosmological utility of D + $^3$He, first suggested by Yang et al (1984), and further, indicates that over the past 4.5 Gyr there has been at most modest stellar production of $^3$He, in contradiction with stellar modeling, or modest stellar destruction of $^3$He, in contradiction with some ``solar spoons.'' While the earlier Galactic evolution of D + $^3$He cannot be constrained directly, it is expected to be dominated by massive stars, which deplete their $^3$He and produce metals. Based on the Galactic metallicity and the constancy of D + $^3$He over the past 4.5 Gyr, we derive a more empirically based lower bound to the cosmological baryon density; while not dramatically different from the original bound of Yang et al (1984) based on D + $^3$He, it alleviates some of the cosmic tension between the big-bang $^4$He abundance and those of D and $^3$He.
Comments: 15 pages + 2 figures (included as eps files using this http URL and this http URL), submitted to Nature
Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
Report number: FERMILAB--Pub--95/407-A
Cite as: arXiv:astro-ph/9602050
  (or arXiv:astro-ph/9602050v1 for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/9602050
Journal reference: Astrophys.J. 466 (1996) L59-L62
Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/310173

Submission history

From: Craig J. Copi [view email]
[v1] Sat, 10 Feb 1996 00:08:47 UTC (29 KB)
Full-text links:

Access Paper:

  • View PDF
  • TeX Source
  • Other Formats
view license
Current browse context:
astro-ph
< prev   |   next >
new | recent | 1996-02

References & Citations

export BibTeX citation

Bookmark

BibSonomy logo Reddit logo

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Recommenders and Search Tools

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
IArxiv Recommender (What is IArxiv?)

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)