Amount of lithium in Small Magellanic Cloud reveals challenge toBig Bang Physics

**Yousuf Khan[_2_]** · September 9th 12, 02:34 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

They are saying that there is a different amount of lithium in the SMC
than in the Milky Way, and yet it matches what is predicted by the Big
Bang? Not entirely sure what they are trying to say here.

Yousuf Khan

Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog...g-physics.html

**Chris Richardson** · September 9th 12, 05:39 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:34:39 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Not entirely sure what they are trying to say here.

Yes, this article represents science journalism at its best --
and the very best is garbage.

Here is my synopsis:

The Magellenic Clouds represent areas that are more "pristine"
than other galaxies. IOW, conditions there better represent
the earliest times of the universe immediately after the big bang.

In the Magellenic Clouds, lithium amounts are observed to closely
conform to the predictions of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN).
This observation causes problems because lithium amounts in stars
are known to be much less than BBN predictions. How then does stellar
lithium disappear?

Also, it is theorized that more lithium synthesis occurred after
the BBN, but the Magellenic Cloud observations seem to exclude
any extra synthesis.

Forget that science journalism crap. Check the sources:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3081

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/33135-no...tandard-model/

**Brad Guth[_3_]** · September 9th 12, 06:37 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

On Sep 9, 9:40*am, Chris Richardson
wrote:
On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:34:39 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Not entirely sure what they are trying to say here.

Yes, this article represents science journalism at its best --
and the very best is garbage.

Here is my synopsis:

The Magellenic Clouds represent areas that are more "pristine"
than other galaxies. *IOW, conditions there better represent
the earliest times of the universe immediately after the big bang.

In the Magellenic Clouds, lithium amounts are observed to closely
conform to the predictions of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN).
This observation causes problems because lithium amounts in stars
are known to be much less than BBN predictions. *How then does stellar
lithium disappear?

Also, it is theorized that more lithium synthesis occurred after
the BBN, but the Magellenic Cloud observations seem to exclude
any extra synthesis.

Forget that science journalism crap. *Check the sources:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3081

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/33135-no...cists-publish-...

The in-crowd always get to publish whatever w/o independent fact-
checking, and usually that publishing is public and/or consumer funded
because they hardly if ever need to spend any of their own loot. Like
Sheldon Cooper and others obtained by universities are essentially
getting paid to entertain us.

http://groups.google.com/groups/search
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth,Brad_Guth,Brad.Guth,BradGuth,BG,Guth Usenet/”Guth Venus”

**Sam Wormley[_2_]** · September 9th 12, 06:56 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

On 9/9/12 8:34 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
They are saying that there is a different amount of lithium in the SMC
than in the Milky Way, and yet it matches what is predicted by the Big
Bang? Not entirely sure what they are trying to say here.

Yousuf Khan

Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog...g-physics.html

Focus: Black Holes May Produce Lithium
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/77

Published July 13, 2012 | Physics 5, 77 (2012) | DOI:
10.1103/Physics.5.77

Theorists predict that the matter surrounding some black holes may be
hot enough for nuclear fusion, which could generate lithium and deepen
the mysteries surrounding lithium in the universe.

Lithium Synthesis in Microquasar Accretion
Fabio Iocco and Miguel Pato
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 021102 (2012)
Published July 13, 2012

Standard cosmology predicts with great accuracy the amounts of hydrogen
and helium produced right after the big bang, but the lithium
predictions appear to be way too high. In Physical Review Letters, a
team calculates that hundreds of thousands of black holes in our galaxy
may also produce substantial amounts of lithium because the hot cloud of
matter surrounding them can generate nuclear fusion. If borne out by
observations, the new theory could make it even harder to explain where
all of the lithium went.

**Sam Wormley[_2_]** · September 9th 12, 07:00 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

On 9/9/12 12:37 PM, Brad Guth wrote:
The in-crowd always get to publish whatever w/o independent fact-
checking...

Ever heard of peer review, Guth?

The arbiter of facts is the data of observation and experiment, Guth!

**7[_2_]** · September 9th 12, 07:14 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

Sam Wormley wrote:

Ever heard of peer review, Guth?

Doh! Have you?

All your glow ball warmie crap hasn't been peer reviewed.

**[email protected]** · #7 September 12th 12, 09:39 PM posted to sci.astro

**Steve Willner** · September 13th 12, 06:04 PM posted to sci.astro,sci.physics

In article ,
Chris Richardson writes:
The Magellenic Clouds represent areas that are more "pristine"
than other galaxies. IOW, conditions there better represent
the earliest times of the universe immediately after the big bang.

Not really. The SMC gas-phase iron abundance is 1/4 solar, so the
gas has been processed through many generations of stars.

There's a commentary in _Nature_ along with the article, but
unfortunately the commentary makes no sense to me. As best I can
tell -- and I'm no expert on any of this -- lithium is both destroyed
and produced in stars and possibly elsewhere, and present abundances
have little to do with the Big Bang. A further complication is that
the recent measurement was of neutral lithium, but that's only 1% of
the total lithium, most of which is singly ionized. Thus there is
substantial uncertainty in measuring the total lithium abundance.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3081

There's a very nice review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis at
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/T..._contents.html

One hope for the future is to measure the less-abundant isotope
lithium-6. This is essentially not produced in the Big Bang, so it
traces subsequent production (and destruction) only. If we knew how
that worked, it might be possible to subtract it and determine the
primordial abundance. Don't hold your breath waiting, though.

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

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