The Galactic Lithium Evolution Revisited

Abstract

We study the temporal evolution of the 7Li abundance in the gaseous medium for all the components (halo, disk and bulge) of our Galaxy. We adopt nucleosynthesis prescriptions on stellar lithium production based upon recent observational results and up-to-date theoretical considerations in the framework of a fully consistent chemical evolution model. 7Li production by AGB stars and SNeII is discussed and the contribution by novae is reintroduced. To gain some insight into the stellar factories which should be taken into account to reproduce the upper envelope of the observational A(Li) vs [Fe/H] diagram for the solar neighborhood, we critically analyse Li data from several authors. The contribution from nova outbursts seems to be fundamental in order to reproduce the high 7Li abundances observed in the most metal-rich dwarfs. Finally, we make predictions on the 7Li content that should be expected in the most metal-rich stars of the Galactic bulge.