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

We estimate the degree to which the baryon density, Omega(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 greater than or equal to 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 similar to 2 pi/(20 h(-1) Mpc), the 1 sigma uncertainties in Omega(b), are roughly 0.07 and 0.016 in flat and open (Omega(0) = 0.3) cosmological models, respectively. This result suggests that it should be possible to test for consistency with big bang nucleosynthesis estimates of Omega(b) if we live in an open universe.