The Spite Lithium Plateau: Ultra-Thin but Post-Primordial

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

We report lithium abundances (A(Li) = log(N(Li)/N(H)) + 12.00) obtained using the Anglo-Australian Telescope for 23 very metal-poor field main sequence stars, restricted to a very narrow range in effective temperature (6100 < T_eff < 6300 K) and metallicity ([Fe/H] < --2.5). Our aim is to accurately determine the dispersion of A(Li) at the lowest chemical abundances and earliest times, and hence to constrain both the amount of lithium which emerged from the Big Bang and possible later stellar processing and interstellar-medium creation. The Li abundances are based on multiple, high-resolution (R = 40000), high signal-to-noise ( ~ 100) spectra and are accurate to 0.033 dex. We find no dependence of A(Li) on effective temperature, but a clear one on [Fe/H] (dA(Li)/d[Fe/H] = 0.118 +/- 0.023(1sigma ) dex/dex). Excluding two stars which are statistical non-members of the population, we find that the dispersion in A(Li) is 0.031 dex. That is, the Spite Plateau is ultra-thin. We argue that the primordial lithium value is given by A(Li)_p = 2.0, and discuss possible systematic errors ( ~ 0.1 dex) and the cosmological implications of the result.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Spite Lithium Plateau: Ultra-Thin but Post-Primordial does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Spite Lithium Plateau: Ultra-Thin but Post-Primordial, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Spite Lithium Plateau: Ultra-Thin but Post-Primordial will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1119707

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.