Detection of 7Be II in the Small Magellanic Cloud

We analyse high-resolution spectra of two classical novae that exploded in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). ⁷Be II resonance transitions are detected in both ASASSN-19qv and ASASSN-20ni novae. This is the first detection outside the Galaxy and confirms that thermo-nuclear runaway reactions, leading to the ⁷Be formation, are effective also in the low-metallicity regime, characteristic of the SMC. Derived yields are of N(⁷Be = ⁷Li)/N(H) = (5.3 ± 0.2) × 10^-6 which are a factor 4 lower than the typical values of the Galaxy. Inspection of two historical novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed with IUE in 1991 and 1992 showed also the possible presence of ⁷Be and similar yields. For an ejecta of M_{H, ej} = 10^-5 M_⊙, the amount of ⁷Li produced is of $M_{^7 Li} = (3.7 \pm 0.6) \times 10^{-10}$ M_⊙ per nova event. Detailed chemical evolutionary model for the SMC shows that novae could have made an amount of lithium in the SMC corresponding to a fractional abundance of A(Li) ≈ 2.6. Therefore, it is argued that a comparison with the abundance of Li in the SMC, as measured by its interstellar medium, could effectively constrain the amount of the initial abundance of primordial Li, which is currently controversial.