Currently, astronomers are unsure why lithium is so rare in the universe. The ‘standard’ model of the Big Bang, using what we know about nuclear physics, can accurately predict the abundances of chemical elements that formed between about 100 and 1,000 seconds after the Big Bang.
However, although the Standard Model accurately predicts primordial hydrogen and helium abundances, it overestimates the measured primordial abundances of lithium by a factor of three to four. So, either the predictions are wrong (and the measurements are right), or the predictions are accurate (and the measurements are wrong).
lithium problem
Scientists have investigated possible solutions to this so-called ‘lithium problem’. One possibility is that there is something lacking in our understanding of nuclear physics – which is why we are overestimating lithium abundances. However, recent research seems to completely rule out this possibility.
Perhaps we don’t fully understand the processes going on inside stars – processes that can erode lithium away from sight. Although astronomers know that cold stars have deep convection regions that can draw lithium to the star’s core and destroy it, and that binary stars, or stars with planetary systems, can also change the elemental abundance of lithium, These processes do not appear to be sufficient to account for the discrepancy.
So, where’s the lithium?
However, some scientists still maintain that there must be other, unknown ways of destroying lithium in the universe.
Another possible solution to the lithium problem is that there is entirely new physics that we are unaware of. The mysterious dark matter probably had an untraceable effect on the production of elements in the early universe. Or perhaps the fundamental constants on which physics is based have not remained constant throughout cosmic time.
Several such theories are being considered to solve the problem. But, at present, the strange rarity of lithium in the universe is a complete mystery.
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Source: www.sciencefocus.com
