NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2010B-0624
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2010B-0624 |
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PI: Jeff Cummings, Indiana University, jdcummi@astro.indiana.edu
Address: Astronomy Department, 1300 N Walnut St, Bloomington, IN 47404, USA
CoI: Andrew Szentgyorgyi, SAO
CoI: Constantine Deliyannis, Indiana University
Title: Initial Li of Metal-Poor Young Open Clusters and its Connection to Primordial Lithium
Abstract:
Lithium is a valuable element for testing models of Galactic
chemical evolution, of stellar interiors, and of Big Bang
nucleosynthesis (BBN). My thesis research on the correlation between a
young cluster's initial Li and [Fe/H] provides the first observations
that may reliably test models of Galactic Li production. The agreement
between our correlation and the initial Li (meteoritic; AG89) of the
significantly older Sun suggests that initial Li is independent of age,
which greatly expands the applications of Li observations in young open
clusters. We wish to build on this success and observe metal-poor young
clusters to address two important issues: First, will the initial Li of
the metal-poor clusters drop low enough to bring it into agreement with
the primordial Li inferred from halo dwarfs (R01), or will their initial
Li introduce a plateau in our correlation and be consistent with the
significantly higher primordial Li inferred from WMAP results (D09)?
Second, these distant clusters are part of the Perseus spiral arm and
will provide important information about this region of our Galaxy.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2010B-0624 |
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