Primordial lithium abundance in catalyzed big bang nucleosynthesis

There exists a well-known problem with the Li-7+Be-7 abundance predicted by standard big bang nucleosynthesis being larger than the value observed in population II stars. The catalysis of big bang nucleosynthesis by metastable, tau(X)greater than or similar to 10(3) sec, charged particles X- is capable of suppressing the primordial Li-7+Be-7 abundance and making it consistent with the observations. We show that to produce the correct abundance, this mechanism of suppression places a requirement on the initial abundance of X- at temperatures of 4x10(8) K to be on the order of or larger than 0.02 per baryon, which is within the natural range of abundances in models with metastable electroweak-scale particles. The suppression of Li-7+Be-7 is triggered by the formation of ((BeX-)-Be-7) compound nuclei, with fast depletion of their abundances by catalyzed proton reactions, and in some models by direct capture of X- on Be-7. The combination of Li-7+Be-7 and Li-6 constraints favors the window of lifetimes, 1000 s less than or similar to tau(X)<= 2000 s.