Determination of the baryon density from large-scale galaxy redshift surveys

We estimate the degree to which the baryon density, Ω_b, can be determined from the galaxy power spectrum measured from large-scale galaxy redshift surveys, and in particular, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A high baryon density will cause wiggles to appear in the power spectrum, which should be observable at the current epoch. We assume linear theory on scales ≥20 h^-1 Mpc and do not include the effects of redshift distortions, evolution, or biasing. With an optimum estimate of P(k) to k ∼ 2π/(20 h^-1 Mpc), the 1 σ uncertainties in Ω_b are roughly 0.07 and 0.016 in flat and open (Ω₀ = 0.3) cosmological models, respectively. This result suggests that it should be possible to test for consistency with big bang nucleosynthesis estimates of Ω_b if we live in an open universe.