What is the lithium abundance in gas never processed by stars? · revision history
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Accepted · first revision · record
- Title
- What is the lithium abundance in gas never processed by stars?
- Plain
- Measuring lithium in interstellar gas of a nearly pristine galaxy would avoid any doubt about stars destroying it. Such measurements are difficult because the lithium absorption line is very weak.
- Precise
- Measure Li/H in the interstellar medium of a galaxy with metallicity below 0.1 solar, corrected for depletion onto dust and cosmic-ray production, with 20 percent precision. A 2012 measurement in the Small Magellanic Cloud gave a value consistent with BBN but with large errors and some galactic enrichment (moderate confidence on values).
- Settled by
- High-resolution ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy of Li I absorption toward bright stars or quasars behind low-metallicity gas with extremely large telescopes.
- Kind
- well-posed
- Answer type
- value
- References
- (empty)
- Literature status
- open
- Status note
- (empty)
- Posed since
- (empty)