A Steady-State Nucleosynthesis Resolution of the Cosmological Lithium Problem

The cosmological lithium problem — the factor-of-3. 5 discrepancy between the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis prediction of lithium-7 abundance (5. 6 × 10⁻¹⁰ relative to hydrogen) and the observationally measured value (1. 6 × 10⁻¹⁰) — has remained unresolved for more than three decades. This paper proposes a resolution through steady-state nucleosynthesis: the observed lithium-7 abundance reflects a dynamic equilibrium between ongoing production and destruction in the stellar environment rather than a frozen primordial value from the first three minutes of the universe. The equilibrium condition dLi-7/dt = Rₚroduction − kdest × Li-7 × p = 0 establishes the correct steady-state kinetic framework. In the physically relevant multi-environment steady-state picture, the observed Spite plateau is not a frozen primordial relic but the present-day regulated surface abundance of old metal-poor halo dwarfs. A quantitative reservoir-plus-envelope calculation using the measured interstellar lithium abundance and standard pre-main-sequence / convective envelope processing yields 1. 0–2. 0 × 10⁻¹⁰, consistent with the observed Spite plateau of 1. 6 × 10⁻¹⁰, without requiring any modification to nuclear reaction rates or any new physics. The argument that primordial lithium-7 has been depleted by stellar processing commits the same logical error as arguing that atmospheric oxygen must be primordial because organisms consume it. Within the broader BFUT framework, the global hydrogen-helium ratio is derived from steady-state baryon cycling and ordinary stellar nuclear physics. In the present paper, helium-4 is shown to arise naturally as the dominant accumulation product of ordinary hydrogen burning under stellar conditions, consistent with the observed cosmic helium mass fraction. The Spite plateau's uniformity is shown to be evidence for a stable equilibrium, not a frozen primordial relic. Full mathematical derivations with all numerical substitutions are provided in Appendix A for readers at any level of mathematical background. The paper's quantitative claim is therefore not that a one-zone spallation-only equilibrium directly yields the Spite plateau, but that the plateau is naturally reproduced when lithium is treated in the physically correct multi-environment steady-state framework.