Stellar Solutions for the Cosmological Lithium Problem

The cosmological lithium problem is a shortcoming in the successful theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). While BBN accurately predicts the primordial abundance of light elements such as H and He, BBN over-predicts primordial $^7$Li by about a factor of 3. Possible explanations of this deficit include stellar diffusion, convection, and magnetic fields by which $^7$Li could be gradually depleted. Among other things, we are exploring convective overshoot and micro-turbulence in the evolution of metal-poor halo stars as possible means of explaining a uniform depletion by a factor of 3 in primordial $^7$Li abundance.