1. Lithium in red giant stars: Constraining non-standard mixing with large surveys in the Gaia era
- Author
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Verne V. Smith, Matthew Shetrone, Corinne Charbonnel, J. Krugler Hollek, G. Ottoni, Pierre North, Rodolfo Smiljanic, Nadège Lagarde, A. Palacios, Gérard Jasniewicz, Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Univers, Transport, Interfaces, Nanostructures, Atmosphère et environnement, Molécules (UMR 6213) (UTINAM), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] (UBFC), Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier (LUPM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), University of North Texas (UNT), Twitter Inc, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), University of Geneva [Switzerland], Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université de Montpellier (UM)-Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
stars: abundances ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,open cluster ,Red giant ,FOS: Physical sciences ,k-giant ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Asteroseismology ,Spectral line ,Photometry (optics) ,surveys ,0103 physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,stars: evolution ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Stellar evolution ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Physics ,stellar evolution ,stars: late-type ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,mu-gradients ,Giant star ,low-mass stars ,Stars ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,subgiant branch ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Thermohaline circulation ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,chemical-composition ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,main-sequence stars ,internal gravity-waves ,s-process - Abstract
Lithium is extensively known to be a good tracer of non-standard mixing processes occurring in stellar interiors. We present the results of a new large Lithium survey in red giant stars and combine it with surveys from the literature to probe the impact of rotation-induced mixing and thermohaline double-diffusive instability along stellar evolution. We determined the surface Li abundance for a sample of 829 giant stars with accurate Gaia parallaxes for a large sub-sample (810 stars) complemented with accurate Hipparcos parallaxes (19 stars). The spectra of our sample of northern and southern giant stars were obtained in three ground-based observatories (OHP, ESO-La Silla, Mc Donald). We determined the atmospheric parameters (Teff, log(g), [Fe/H]), and the Li abundance. We used Gaia parallaxes and photometry to determine the luminosity of our objects and we estimated the mass and evolution status of each sample star with a maximum-likelihood technique using stellar evolution models computed with the STAREVOL code. We compared the observed Li behaviour with predictions from stellar models, including rotation and thermohaline mixing. The same approach was used for stars from selected Li surveys from the literature. Rotation-induced mixing accounts nicely for the lithium behaviour in stars warmer than about 4200K, independently of the mass domain. For stars with masses lower than 2Msun thermohaline mixing leads to further Li depletion below the Teff of the RGB bump (about 4000K), and on the early AGB, as observed. Depending on the definition we adopt, we find between 0.8 and 2.2% of Li-rich giants in our new sample. Gaia puts a new spin on the understanding of mixing processes in stars, and our study confirms the importance of rotation-induced processes and of thermohaline mixing. However asteroseismology is required to definitively pinpoint the actual evolution status of Li-rich giants., Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, A&A, accepted for publication (new version with an additional reference)
- Published
- 2020
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