The surface content of lithium (Li) and beryllium (Be) in stars can reveal
important information about the temperature structure and physical processes in
their interior regions. This study focuses on solar-type stars with a sample
that is more precisely defined than done previously. Our selection of stars
studied for Be is constrained by five parameters: mass, temperature, surface
gravity, metallicity, and age to be similar to the Sun and is focussed on stars
within +-0.02 of 1 M_sun. We have used the Keck I telescope with HIRES to
obtain spectra of the Be II spectral region of 52 such stars at high spectral
resolution (∼45,000) and high signal-to-noise ratios. While the spread in
Li in these stars is greater than a factor of 400, the spread in Be is only 2.7
times. Two stars were without any Be, perhaps due to a merger or a mass
transfer with a companion. We find a steep trend of Li with temperature but
little for Be. While there is a downward trend in Li with [Fe/H] from -0.4 to
+0.4 due to stellar depletion, there is a small increase in Be with Fe from
Galactic Be enrichment. While there is a broad decline in Li with age, there
may be a small increase in Be with age, though age is less well-determined. In
the subset of stars closest to the Sun in temperature and other parameters we
find that the ratio of the abundances of Be to Li is much lower than predicted
by models; there may be other mixing mechanisms causing additional Li
depletion.Comment: total 29 pages including 12 figures, 5 tables Accepted for
Astrophysical Journa