Classical novae as lithium factories in the galaxy

Luca Izzo, DARK/NBI, University of Copenaghen
Monday, Dec 09, 12:30 PM - JINA-CEE Pizza Lunch
1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building

Abstract:  The abundance of lithium observed in very young stellar populations is few times larger than the primordial one estimated by recent Planck measurements. Since Lithium is easily destroyed in the stellar interiors, the search for astrophysical sources responsible for the observed lithium over-abundance was a challenge for decades. In this talk I will present the results of an on-going survey dedicated to the study of nova outburst with high-resolution spectrographs at ESO/VLT. In particular, I will concentrate on the recent detection of beryllium-7 in the spectra of recent classical novae. While this finding is a further confirmation of the occurrence of the thermo-nuclear runaway in nova explosions, at same time it implies that classical novae are one of the main factories of lithium in our Galaxy (and other nearby systems).