Cosmic Ray Production of ${}^6$Li by Structure Formation Shocks in the Early Galaxy

Abstract

We discuss the production of the element ${}^6$Li in the early Galaxy by cosmic rays accelerated at structure formation shocks, driven by the hierarchical merging of sub-Galactic halos during Galaxy formation. The salient features of this scenario are discussed and compared with observations of ${}^6$Li in metal-poor halo stars, including a recent Subaru HDS result on the star HD140283. Some unique predictions of the model are clearly testable by future observations and may also provide important insight into how the Galaxy formed.

4 pages, 1 figure; to appear in Nuc. Phys. A; talk at Nuclei in the Cosmos 7, Fuji-Yoshida, Japan 2002

References in corpus (2)

• Formation of the Galactic stellar halo I. Structure and kinematics
• Cosmic Ray Production of Lithium-6 by Structure Formation Shocks in the Early Milky Way: A Fossil Record of Dissipative Processes during Galaxy Formation

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Primordial Nucleosynthesis: from precision cosmology to fundamental physics
• The cosmic 6Li and 7Li problems and BBN with long-lived charged massive particles