Lithium synthesis in microquasar accretion

TL;DR

This paper investigates lithium isotope production in accretion tori around stellar black holes, revealing significant synthesis that could impact galactic lithium abundance more than traditional sources.

Contribution

It demonstrates that accretion tori around stellar black holes can produce substantial lithium isotopes, a novel source compared to known astrophysical processes.

Findings

Produced up to 1e-2 solar masses of each lithium isotope

Lithium production can rival pre-galactic levels in the galaxy

Potential to dominate galactic lithium enrichment

Abstract

We study the synthesis of lithium isotopes in the hot tori formed around stellar mass black holes by accretion of the companion star. We find that sizable amounts of both stable isotopes 6Li and 7Li can be produced, the exact figures varying with the characteristics of the torus and reaching as much as 1e-2 Msun for each isotope. This mass output is enough to contaminate the entire Galaxy at a level comparable with the original, pre-galactic amount of lithium and to overcome other sources such as cosmic-ray spallation or stellar nucleosynthesis.