The metal-poor end of the Spite plateau

We present the largest sample available to date of lithium abundances in extremely metal poor (EMP) Halo dwarfs. Four Teff estimators are used, including IRFM and Halpha wings fitting against 3D hydrodynamical synthetic profiles. Lithium abundances are computed by means of 1D and 3D-hydrodynamical NLTE computations. Below [Fe/H]~-3, a strong positive correlation of A(Li) with [Fe/H] appears, not influenced by the choice of the Teff estimator. A linear fit finds a slope of about 0.30 dex in A(Li) per dex in [Fe/H], significant to 2-3 sigma, and consistent within 1 sigma among all the Teff estimators. The scatter in A(Li) increases significantly below [Fe/H]~-3. Above, the plateau lies at = 2.199 ± 0.086. If the primordial A(Li) is the one derived from standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), it appears difficult to envision a single depletion phenomenon producing a thin, metallicity independent plateau above [Fe/H] = -2.8, and a highly scattered, metallicity dependent distribution below. Bibtex entry for this abstract Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences) Find Similar Abstracts: Use: Authors Title Keywords (in text query field) Abstract Text Return: Query Results Return items starting with number Query Form Database: Astronomy Physics arXiv e-prints
DOI: 10.1017/S1743921310000244
info:eu-repo/semantics/published