The Role of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in Joint Cosmological Analyses

Abstract

We perform joint Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) + Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and BAO+BBN+Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) analyses with Planck CMB and DESI DR2 BAO data, explicitly marginalizing over BBN nuisance parameters for the first time with these data combinations and paying particular attention to the impact of BBN on these results. We find in our fiducial analyses $h=0.6833^{+0.0048}_{-0.0053}$ ($Λ$CDM, BAO+BBN), $h=0.6823^{+0.0027}_{-0.0026}$ ($Λ$CDM, BAO+BBN+CMB), as well as $h=0.6791^{+0.0069}_{-0.0075},N_{\rm{eff}}=2.974^{+0.098}_{-0.099}$ ($Λ$CDM+$N_{\rm{eff}}$, BAO+BBN), and $h=0.6838^{+0.0052}_{-0.0054},N_{\rm{eff}}=3.065^{+0.078}_{-0.076}$ ($Λ$CDM+$N_{\rm{eff}}$, BAO+BBN+CMB). We demonstrate how investigator choices can impact results of joint analyses involving BBN. We provide recommendations for the treatment of BBN in light of recent work, and demonstrate a pipeline that accurately accounts for prediction uncertainties in BBN.