EXAMINATION OF THE MASS-DEPENDENT Li DEPLETION HYPOTHESIS BY THE Li ABUNDANCES OF THE VERY METAL-POOR DOUBLE-LINED SPECTROSCOPIC BINARY G166-45

The Li abundances of the two components of the very metal-poor ([Fe/H] = -2.5) double-lined spectroscopic binary G166-45 (BD+26 degrees 2606) are determined separately based on high-resolution spectra obtained with the Subaru Telescope High Dispersion Spectrograph and its image slicer. From the photometric colors and the mass ratio, the effective temperatures of the primary and secondary components are estimated to be 6350 +/- 100 K and 5830 +/- 170 K, respectively. The Li abundance of the primary (A(Li) = 2.23) agrees well with the Spite plateau value, while that of the secondary is slightly lower (A(Li) = 2.11). Such a discrepancy of the Li abundances between the two components is previously found in the extremely metal-poor, double-lined spectroscopic binary CS 22876-032; however, the discrepancy in G166-45 is much smaller. The results agree with the trends found for Li abundance as a function of effective temperature (and of stellar mass) of main-sequence stars with -3.0 < [Fe/H] < -2.0, suggesting that the depletion of Li at T-eff similar to 5800 K is not particularly large in this metallicity range. The significant Li depletion found in CS 22876-032B is a phenomenon only found in the lowest metallicity range ([Fe/H] < -3).