Related papers: Primordial Helium Abundance from CMB: a constraint…
Based on observations of HII regions and the new computations of the recombination coefficients of the He I lines by Porter et al. (2013) we obtain a primordial helium abundance by mass of $Y_P = 0.2446\pm0.0029$. We consider thirteen…
Currently there are two significantly different observational determinations of the primordial helium abundance, and, if only statistical errors in He4 abundance determinations are considered, the discrepancies between the observational…
Using a new sample of extremely metal poor systems, the EMPRESS survey has recently reported a primordial helium abundance that is $3\sigma$ smaller than the prediction from the standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) scenario. This…
We present a review on the determination of the primordial helium abundance Yp, based on the study of hydrogen and helium recombination lines in extragalactic HII regions. We also discuss the observational determinations of the increase of…
Almost every helium atom in the Universe was created just a few minutes after the Big Bang through a process commonly referred to as Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. The amount of helium that was made during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is determined…
Extremely low metallicity HII regions have been observed with the goal of determining the primordial helium abundance ($Y_{\rm p}$). $Y_{\rm p}$, combined with standard big bang nucleosynthesis and the half-life of the neutron, provides a…
Primordial or Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historical strong evidences for the Big-Bang model together with the expansion of the Universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). The recent results by the…
We include new data in an updated analysis of helium in low metallicity extragalactic HII regions with the goal of deriving the primordial abundance of He4 (Y_P). We show that the new observations of Izotov et al (ITL) are consistent with…
Recent advances on the quest to determine the primordial or pregalactic helium abundance, Yp, are reviewed. There are seven problems affecting the He/H abundance determinations of H II regions that are briefly discussed: the underlying…
Recent precise determinations of the primordial He-abundance (Y_p) from cosmic microwave background (CMB) analyses and cosmological nucleosynthesis computations, provide Y_p=0.248$\pm$0.001. On the other hand, recent works on the initial…
We present constraints on the number of relativistic species from a joint analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations and light element abundances (helium and deuterium) compared to big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) predictions.…
A cosmic lepton asymmetry $\eta_{\text{l}}=(n_{\text{l}}-n_{\bar{\text{l}}})/n_{\gamma}$ affects the primordial helium abundance and the expansion rate of the early Universe. Both of these effects have an impact on the anisotropies of the…
We have used recent observations of helium-4, nitrogen and oxygen from some four dozen, low metallicity, extra-galactic HII regions to define mean $N$ versus $O$, $^4He$ versus $N$ and $^4He$ versus $O$ relations which are extrapolated to…
Tests of big bang nucleosynthesis and early universe cosmology require precision measurements for helium abundance determinations. However, efforts to determine the primordial helium abundance via observations of metal poor H II regions…
We present new limits on the amplitude of potential primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) using temperature and polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from Planck, BICEP2/Keck Array, POLARBEAR, and SPTpol. We reduce…
Spectroscopic observations of the chemical abundances in metal-poor H II regions provide an independent method for estimating the primordial helium abundance. H II regions are described by several physical parameters such as electron…
We investigate constraints on the abundance of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the mass range 10^{15}-10^{17} g using data from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and MeV extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Hawking radiation from…
The products of primordial nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons are relics from the early evolution of the Universe whose observations probe the standard model of cosmology and provide windows on new physics…
To place meaningful constraints on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis models, the primordial helium abundance determination is crucial. Low-metallicity HII regions have been used to estimate it since their statistical uncertainties are relatively…
We present calculations showing that upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments will have the power to improve on current constraints on neutrino masses and provide new limits on neutrino degeneracy parameters. The latter could…