Commentary on the Liquid Metallic Hydrogen Model of the Sun III. Insight into Solar Lithium Abundances

The apparent depletion of lithium represents one of the greatest challenges to modern gaseous solar models. As a result, lithium has been hypothesized to undergo nuclear burning deep within the Sun. Conversely, extremely low lithium abundances can be easily accounted for within the liquid metallic hydrogen model, as lithium has been hypothesized to greatly stabilize the formation of metallic hydrogen (E. Zurek et al. A little bit of lithium does a lot for hydrogen. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 2009, v. 106, no. 42, 17640–17643). Hence, the abundances of lithium on the solar surface can be explained, not by requiring the nuclear burning of this element, but rather, by suggesting that the Sun is retaining lithium within the solar body in order to help stabilize its liquid metallic hydrogen lattice. Unlike lithium, many of the other elements synthesized within the Sun should experience powerful lattice exclusionary forces as they are driven out of the intercalate regions between the layered liquid metallic hydrogen hexagonal planes (Robitaille J.C. and Robitaille P.M. Liquid Metallic Hydrogen III. Intercalation and Lattice Exclusion Versus Gravitational Settling and Their Consequences Relative to Internal Structure, Surface Activity, and Solar Winds in the Sun. Progr. Phys., 2013, v. 2, in press). As for lithium, its stabilizing role within the solar interior helps to account for the lack of this element on the surface of the Sun