Beryllium in Ultra-Lithium-Deficient Halo Stars - The Blue Straggler Connection

TL;DR

This study investigates ultra-Li-deficient halo stars and finds they are also Be-deficient, supporting the idea that they are blue stragglers resulting from mass transfer or mergers, which impacts primordial Li measurements.

Contribution

The paper provides the first Be abundance measurements for ultra-Li-deficient stars, linking their deficiencies to blue straggler formation processes and challenging existing models of Li depletion.

Findings

All six ultra-Li-deficient stars are Be-deficient.

Be abundances are consistent with blue straggler formation scenarios.

These stars are outliers in primordial Li abundance measurements.

Abstract

There are nine metal-deficient stars that have Li abundances well below the Li plateau that is defined by over 100 unevolved stars with temperatures above 5800 K and values of [Fe/H] $<$ $-$1.0. Abundances of Be have been determined for most of these ultra-Li-deficient stars in order to investigate the cause of the Li deficiencies. High-resolution and high signal-to-noise spectra have been obtained in the Be II spectral region near 3130 \AA for six ultra-Li-deficient stars with the Keck I telescope and its new uv-sensitive CCD on the upgraded HIRES. The spectrum synthesis technique has been used to determine Be abundances. All six stars are found to have Be deficiencies also. Two have measurable - but reduced - Be and four have only upper limits on Be. These results are consistent with the idea that these Li- and Be-deficient stars are analogous to blue stragglers. The stars have undergone mass transfer events (or mergers) which destroy or dilute both Li and Be. The findings cannot be matched by the models that predict that the deficiencies are due to extra-mixing in a subset of halo stars that were initially rapid rotators, with the possible exception of one star, G 139-8. Because the ultra-Li-deficient stars are also Be-deficient, they appear to be genuine outliers in population of halo stars used to determine the value of primordial Li; they no longer have the Li in their atmospheres that was produced in the Big Bang.