Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
We report on our progress in determining the cosmic abundance of He-3. The abundances are derived from observations of the 8.665 GHz hyperfine line of (3)He(+) in H II regions. Despite observational challenges we have measured the line to high enough precision in some H II regions that the line parameters are no longer the limiting factor in the accuracy of the abundance determinations. We find abundances ranging from He-3/H approximately 1-4 x 10-5. Since the abundance pattern does not fit that expected from the overall chemical evolution of the Galaxy, we suggest local enrichment of some H II regions, perhaps from Wolf-Rayet winds. If averaged over an intial mass function stars are not a net sink for He-3, then our lowest abundance source places a lower limit on the cosmological parameters eta the baryon-to-photon ratio. The He-3 lower limit is about the same as the upper limit from H-2, He-4 and Li-7 eta approximately 4 x 10-10.
Balser et al. (Mon,) studied this question.