section_path: Observational evidence/Abundance of primordial elements
section_name: Abundance of primordial elements
paragraph_text: Abundance of primordial elements
  
  Using Big Bang models, it is possible to calculate the expected concentration of the isotopes helium-4 (He), helium-3 (He), deuterium (H), and lithium-7 (Li) in the universe as ratios to the amount of ordinary hydrogen. The relative abundances depend on a single parameter, the ratio of photons to baryons. This value can be calculated independently from the detailed structure of CMB fluctuations. The ratios predicted (by mass, not by abundance) are about 0.25 for He:H, about 10 for H:H, about 10 for He:H, and about 10 for Li:H.
  
  The measured abundances all agree at least roughly with those predicted from a single value of the baryon-to-photon ratio. The agreement is excellent for deuterium, close but formally discrepant for He, and off by a factor of two for Li (this anomaly is known as the cosmological lithium problem); in the latter two cases, there are substantial systematic uncertainties. Nonetheless, the general consistency with abundances predicted by BBN is strong evidence for the Big Bang, as the theory is the only known explanation for the relative abundances of light elements, and it is virtually impossible to "tune" the Big Bang to produce much more or less than 20–30% helium. Indeed, there is no obvious reason outside of the Big Bang that, for example, the young universe before star formation, as determined by studying matter supposedly free of stellar nucleosynthesis products, should have more helium than deuterium or more deuterium than He, and in constant ratios, too.