Lithium

Cosmic Scarcity

Lithium's scarcity in the universe presents a puzzling anomaly known as the cosmological lithium problem. Despite being the third lightest element, it is not as abundant as expected, with only about a third of the predicted amount present in the cosmos. Gary Arndt explains that while hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements, lithium's scarcity defies the expected pattern of abundance based on atomic numbers 1.

It would be very reasonable to assume that the third most abundant element would be lithium with an atomic number of three. Except that is not the case at all.

--- Gary Arndt

This scarcity is further complicated by observations that stars poor in heavy metals have more lithium, while those with planets have less 1.

   

Possible Explanations

Several theories attempt to explain the unexpected scarcity of lithium in the universe. One possibility is that lithium is simply not being observed, or that it quickly fuses into other elements during stellar processes. Gary Arndt suggests that our understanding of fusion in stars might be incomplete, affecting lithium's presence 1.

There isn't a clear answer to the cosmological lithium problem, but there are a few possible explanations.

--- Gary Arndt

Another hypothesis is that errors in our understanding of the early universe's conditions after the Big Bang might account for the discrepancy 1.