BE-9 ABUNDANCES IN POPULATION-II STARS - IMPLICATIONS FOR LIGHT-ELEMENT NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

Upper limits on the 9Be abundances in four metal-deficient dwarfs were obtained by applying the spectrum synthesis technique to high-resolution spectra at 3130 Å. The abundance of 9Be is seen to track the iron deficiency rather than maintain a nearly uniform abundance as is seen for the neighboring light element, 7Li. The deficiency of 9Be permits the cosmic-ray spallation contribution to the 7Li abundance of HD 140283 to be stated as less than 1%. The very low abundance of 9Be can be used to constrain recent nonuniform density models for the big bang, which predict significant primordial abundances for this element.