English

Primordial Helium Abundance from CMB: a constraint from recent observations and a forecast

Astrophysics 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We studied a constraint on the primordial helium abundance Y_p from current and future observations of CMB. Using the currently available data from WMAP, ACBAR, CBI and BOOMERANG, we obtained the constraint as Y_p = 0.25^{+0.10}_{-0.07} at 68% C.L. We also provide a forecast for the Planck experiment using the Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. In addition to forecasting the constraint on Y_p, we investigate how assumptions for Y_p affect constraints on the other cosmological parameters.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0712.4327,
  title  = {Primordial Helium Abundance from CMB: a constraint from recent observations and a forecast},
  author = {Kazuhide Ichikawa and Toyokazu Sekiguchi and Tomo Takahashi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.4327},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

17 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; update after WMAP 5-year results, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:57:59.766Z