Related papers: Intriguing Revelations from Lithium, Beryllium, an…
The discovery of metal-poor stars (where metal is any element more massive than helium) has enabled astronomers to probe the chemical enrichment history of the Milky Way. More recently, element abundances in gas inside high-redshift…
We present an elemental-abundance analysis, in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectral range, for the extremely metal-poor star BD+44 493, a 9th magnitude sub-giant with [Fe/H] = -3.8 and enhanced carbon, based on data acquired with the Space…
Silicon and Strontium are key elements to explore the nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of the Galaxy by measurements of very metal-poor stars. There are, however, only a few useful spectral lines of these elements in the optical range…
The abundance of primordial lithium is derived from the observed spectroscopy of metal-poor stars in the galactic halo. However, the observationally inferred abundance remains at about a factor of three below the abundance predicted by…
Results of a detailed examination of the cascade nucleosynthesis resulting from the putative hadronic decay, evaporation, or annihilation of a primordial relic during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) era are presented. It is found that…
There is continued interest in the possibility that big bang nucleosynthesis may produce significant quantities of Be and B. In this paper we reevaluate the primordial abundances taking into account uncertainties in reactions rates. We…
We update the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis calculations on the basis of the recent NACRE compilation. The average values of the calculated abundances of light nuclei do not differ significantly from that obtained using the previous Fowler's…
We investigate the modifications to predictions for the abundances of light elements from standard Big-Bang nucleosynthesis when exotic late-decaying particles with lifetimes exceeding ~1 sec are prominent in the early Universe. Utilising a…
Cosmic rays of kinetic energies below ~1 GeV per nucleon are thought to play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar medium. They are also thought to be responsible for nucleosynthesis of the light elements Li, Be, and…
With an aim to shed light on the origin of Li anomaly observed in a small fraction of red giants, we carried out a spectroscopic study on the observational characteristics of selected 20 bright Li-rich giants, in comparison with a large…
In a recent study, based on homogeneous barium abundance measurements in open clusters, a trend of increasing [Ba/Fe] ratios for decreasing cluster age was reported. We present here further abundance determinations, relative to four other…
[abridged] Previous analyses of lithium abundances in main sequence and red giant stars have revealed the action of mixing mechanisms other than convection in stellar interiors. Beryllium abundances in stars with lithium abundance…
Globular clusters host multiple stellar populations that display star-to-star variation of light elements that are affected by hot hydrogen burning (e.g., He, C, N, O). Several scenarios have been suggested to explain these variations. Most…
The light elements D, \he3, \he4, and \li7 are produced in big bang nucleosynthesis and undergo changes in their abundances due to galactic processing. Since one may observe most of these elements only in contemporary environments,…
Elements heavier than the iron group are found in nearly all halo stars. A substantial number of these elements, key to understanding neutron-capture nucleosynthesis mechanisms, can only be detected in the near-ultraviolet. We report the…
We have observed the B I 2497 A line to derive the boron abundances of two very metal-poor stars selected to help in tracing the origin and evolution of this element in the early Galaxy: BD +23 3130 and HD 84937. The observations were…
The pre-Galactic abundance of lithium offers a unique window into non-thermal cosmological processes. The primordial Li abundance is guaranteed to be present and probes big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), while an additional Li component is…
We present the first systematic study of lithium abundance in a chemically homogeneous sample of 27 red supergiants (RSGs) in the young Perseus complex. For these stars, accurate stellar parameters and detailed chemical abundances of iron…
Context: Lithium is a fragile element, which is easily destroyed in the stellar interior. The existence of lithium-rich giants still represents a challenge for stellar evolution models. Aims: We have collected a large database of…
The synthesis of nuclei in diverse cosmic scenarios is reviewed, with a summary of the basic concepts involved before a discussion of the current status in each case is made. We review the physics of the early universe, the proton to…