Deuterium at high-redshift: Primordial abundance in the zabs = 2.621
  damped Ly-alpha system towards CTQ247
  The detection of neutral deuterium in the low-metallicity damped
Lyman-{\alpha} system at zabs = 2.621 towards the quasar CTQ247 is reported.
Using a high signal-to-noise and high spectral resolution (R = 60000) spectrum
from the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph, we
precisely measure the deuterium-to-oxygen ratio log N(DI)/N(OI) = 0.74+/-0.04,
as well as the overall oxygen abundance, log N(OI)/N(HI)=-5.29+/-0.10 (or
equivalently [O/H]=-1.99+/-0.10 with respect to the solar value). Assuming
uniform metallicity throughout the system, our measurement translates to (D/H)
= (2.8+0.8 -0.6)x10^-5. This ratio is consistent within errors (<0.4sigma) with
the primordial ratio, (D/H)p = (2.59+/-0.15)x10^-5, predicted by standard
Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis using the WMAP7 value of the cosmological density of
baryons (100 Omega_b h^2 = 2.249+/-0.056). The DI absorption lines are observed
to be broader than the OI absorption lines. From a consistent fit of the
profiles we derive the turbulent broadening to be 5.2 km/s and the temperature
of the gas to be T = 8800+/-1500 K, corresponding to a warm neutral medium.
