Helium preenrichment in the star-forming regions

We show that element diffusion can produce large fluctuations in the initial helium abundance of the star-forming clouds. Diffusion time-scale, which in stars is much larger than the Hubble time, can fall below 10^8 years in the neutral gas clouds dominated by collisionless dark matter or with dynamically important radiation or magnetic pressure. Helium diffusion may therefore explain the recent observations of globular clusters, which are inconsistent with initially homogeneous helium distribution.