5.4. The Check from the Budget at z 3

Stars are subdominant in the budget at low redshift and likely are even less significant at redshift z 3, so it makes sense to compare the sum of the high redshift diffuse gas components in Table 3 to the sum at low redshift and the prediction of light element nucleosynthesis.

The sum of the central values for diffuse baryons at z 3 is = 0.04. This is consistent with the maximum sum in our low redshift budget but again contradicts the standard model for helium abundance. The sum of the minimum values at z 3 is within the error flags in equation (38) and the standard model for the light elements. Thus there is no contradiction with equation (38), but advances in the observations of the intergalactic medium at high redshift may provide a critical test.