Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:30:59.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lithium abundances in extremely metal-poor unevolved stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2005

P. Bonifacio
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy email: bonifaci@ts.astro.it
P. Molaro
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy email: bonifaci@ts.astro.it
T. Sivarani
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy and Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
R. Cayrel
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, GEPI, F-92195 Meudon Cedex, France
M. Spite
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, GEPI, F-92195 Meudon Cedex, France
F. Spite
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, GEPI, F-92195 Meudon Cedex, France
B. Plez
Affiliation:
GRAAL, Université de Montpellier II, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
J. Andersen
Affiliation:
Niels Bohr Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
B. Barbuy
Affiliation:
IAG, Depto. de Astronomia, Univ. de São Paulo, CP 3386, BR 01060-970 São Paulo, Brazil
T. C. Beers
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy and Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
E. Depagne
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago, Chile
V. Hill
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, GEPI, F-92195 Meudon Cedex, France
P. François
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, GEPI, F-92195 Meudon Cedex, France
B. Nordström
Affiliation:
Niels Bohr Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Lund Observatory, Box 43, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden
F. Primas
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, D-85749 Garching b. München, Germany
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We have studied the lithium abundance in 18 extremely metal-poor main-sequence turnoff stars as a function of [Fe/H] and $T_{\rm eff}$, using high-quality VLT/UVES spectra. The sample covers the range $-3.3\le [{\rm Fe}/{\rm H}]\le -2.5$, with half of the stars below [Fe/H] = −3.0. $T_{\rm eff}$ is determined from H$\alpha$ line profiles as well as from B-V, V-K, J-H and J-K colours. The behaviour of A(Li) as a function of metallicity is markedly different when different temperature scales are adopted. However, even when applying standard depletion corrections, it is a robust result that the Li abundance in extremely metal poor dwarfs is far below the prediction of standard big bang nucleosynthesis using a baryonic density consistent with the WMAP data.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
© 2005 International Astronomical Union

Footnotes

Based on observations made with the ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile (VLT Large Programme “First Stars”, ID 165.N-0276, P.I. R. Cayrel).