Can Be-9 provide a test of cosmological theories?

Abstract

The Li-7(H-3,n)Be-9 reaction, previously neglected in nucleosynthesis determinations, is found to greatly increase the predicted abundance of Be-9 resulting from the big bang. For a nonuniform density universe, a primordial Be-9/H-1 number density ratio of 10 to the -13th is obtained. It is noted that recent Be-9/H-1 measurements in Population II stars approach the nonuniform density universe value.