Implications of a Primordial Origin for the Dispersion in D/H in Quasar Absorption Systems

We explore the difficulties with a primordial origin of variations of D/H in quasar absorption systems. In particular we examine options such as a very large-scale inhomogeneity in the baryon content of the universe. We show that very large-scale (much larger than 1 Mpc) isocurvature perturbations are excluded by current cosmic microwave background observations. Smaller-scale ad hoc perturbations (∼ 1 Mpc) still may lead to a large dispersion in primordial abundances but are subject to other constraints.