Galactic Fly-Bys: New Source of Lithium Production
  Observations of low-metallicity halo stars have revealed a puzzling result:
the abundance of \li7 in these stars is at least three times lower than their
predicted primordial abundance. It is unclear whether the cause of this
disagreement is a lack of understanding of lithium destruction mechanisms in
stars or the non-standard physics behind the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN).
Uncertainties related to the destruction of lithium in stars can be
circumvented if lithium abundance is measured in the "pristine" gas of the low
metallicity systems. The first measurement in one such system, the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC), was found to be at the level of the pure expected
primordial value, but is on the other hand, just barely consistent with the
expected galactic abundance for the system at the SMC metallicity, where
important lithium quantity was also produced in interactions of galactic cosmic
rays (GCRs) and presents an addition to the already present primordial
abundance. Due to the importance of the SMC lithium measurement for the
resolution of the lithium problem, we here draw attention to the possibility of
another post-BBN production channel of lithium, which could present an
important addition to the observed SMC lithium abundance. Besides standard
galactic cosmic rays, additional post-BBN production of lithium might come from
cosmic rays accelerated in galaxy-galaxy interactions. This might be important
for a system such is the SMC, which has experienced galaxy harassment in its
history...(abridged)
