The Impact of Stellar Abundance Variations on Stellar Habitable Zone Evolution

The high quality spectra required for radial velocity planet searches are well-suited to providing abundances for a wide array of elements in large samples of stars. Abundance ratios of the most common elements relative to Fe are observed to vary by more than a factor of two in planet host candidates. This level of variation has a substantial impact on the evolution of the host star and the extent of its habitable zone. We present stellar models of 1 solar mass stars with custom compositions representing the full range of these non-solar abundance ratios. We find that the effects derived from variation over the observed range of [O/Fe] are particularly dramatic. Habitability lifetimes for some classes of orbits can vary by gigayears for the observed range in [O/Fe].
Comment: 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters