Researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science &Technology, have discovered hundreds of Li-rich giant stars indicating that Li is being produced in the stars and accounts for its abundance in the interstellar medium. They have also associated such Li enhancement with central He-burning stars, also known as red clump giants, thereby opening up new vistas in the evolution of the red giant stars.
Dr. Eswar Reddy and his students Deepak and Raghubar Singh at IIA in their study published recently in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and Monthly Notices of royal astronomical society (MNRAS) discovered a number of super Li-rich giants which have Li quantity which is equal to or in some cases, more than 10 times the present value, A(Li) =3.2 dex ( measured in logarithmic scale relative to hydrogen).
Lithium and Primordial elements
Lithium (Li), is one of the three primordial elements, apart from Hydrogen and Helium (He), produced in the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) whose models predict primordial Li abundance (A(Li) ~2.7~dex).
