On Possible Variation in the Cosmological Baryon Fraction
  The fraction of matter that is in the form of baryons or dark matter could
have spatial fluctuations in the form of baryon-dark matter isocurvature
fluctuations. We use big bang nucleosynthesis calculations compared with
observed light element abundances as well as galaxy cluster gas fractions to
constrain cosmological variations in the baryon fraction. Light element
abundances constrain spatial variations to be less than 26-27%, while a sample
of "relaxed" galaxy clusters shows spatial variations in gas fractions less
than 8%. Larger spatial variations could cause differential screening of the
primary cosmic microwave background anisotropies, leading to asymmetries in the
fluctuations and ease some tension with the halo-star 7Li abundance.
Fluctuations within our allowed bounds can lead to "B-mode" CMB polarization
anisotropies at a non-negligible level.
