1996/12/11 by David Tytler, Scott Burles, Tytler, David +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9612121
25 pages, 6 Figures, also available at http://nately.ucsd.edu/ ; submitted to the Astrophysical Journal
openalex publication_date 1996/12/11 · arxiv created 1996/12/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/10/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The spectrum of quasar 0014+813 was the first in which deuterium was claimed\nto be observed, at first as a probable detection, and later ``confirmed''. It\nis important because it is the only case in which there is a serious likelihood\nof a high D/H ratio, since the others are more ambiguous and admit a wide range\nof D/H including zero. We present new high-resolution spectra with higher\nquality than those published. Deuterium has been reported in two Lyman limit\nsystems ( zabs = 3.32, 2.80) along the line of sight. In both we find that the\nabsorption is readily explained by H alone and that deuterium absorption is\nneither required nor suggested by the spectra. The three previous models with\nhigh D/H values (D/H \≈ 20 \× 10-5) are not compatible with the\nnew data, and in some cases the differences are surprisingly large. Since the\nspectrum is compatible with all values of D/H from zero up to large upper\nlimits, neither absorption system can be used to measure D/H, and previously\ncited values should be disregarded. There is now no case in which a high value\nof D/H has been established, and all data are compatible with low D/H.\nDeuterium has been seen and measured in only two QSOs (Q1937--1009 and\nQ1009+2956), both of which give low D/H. Several other QSOs give upper limits\nwhich are about ten times less sensitive.\n