Since 7Li is easily destroyed in low temperatures, the surface lithium abundance decreases as stars evolve. This is supported by the lithium depletion observed in the atmosphere of most red giants. However, recent studies show that almost all of red clump stars have high lithium abundances A(Li)>-0.9, which are not predicted by the standard theory of the low-mass stellar evolution. In order to reconcile the discrepancy between the observations and the model, we consider additional energy loss channels which may come from physics beyond the Standard Model. A(Li) slightly increases near the tip of the red giant branch even in the standard model with thermohaline mixing because of the 7Be production by the Cameron-Fowler mechanism, but the resultant 7Li abundance is much lower than the observed values. We find that the production of 7Be becomes more active if there are additional energy loss channels, because themohaline mixing becomes more efficient and a heavier helium core is formed.
Lithium has confused scientists for decades at almost each scale of the universe. Lithium-rich giants are peculiar stars with lithium abundances over model prediction. A large fraction of lithium-rich low-mass evolved stars are traditionally supposed to be red giant branch (RGB) stars. Recent studies, however, report that red clump (RC) stars are more frequent than RGB. Here, we present a uniquely large systematic study combining the direct asteroseismic analysis with the spectroscopy on the lithium-rich stars. The majority of lithium-rich stars are confirmed to be RCs, whereas RGBs are minor.…
A recent study of Li abundances in field red giant stars suggested that the phenomenon of enriched surface Li may be a short-lived phase of red clump evolution for stars with masses near 2 M_sun. Although the exact mechanism for generating this Li is not fully understood, it may be related to the He-core flash that immediately precedes the red clump stage. To test the incidence and timescale of this proposed process, we are targeting red clump stars in four southern open clusters, using the cluster ages to ensure that the stellar masses are ~2 M_sun. Additionally, we observe at least one upper…
Context. The existence of lithium-rich low-mass red giant stars still represents a challenge for stellar evolution models. Stellar clusters are privileged environments for this kind of investigation. Aims. To investigate the chemical abundance pattern of the old open cluster Trumpler\,5, we observed a sample of four red-clump stars with high-resolution optical spectrographs. One of them (#3416) reveals extremely strong lithium lines in its spectrum. Methods. One-dimensional, local thermodynamic equilibrium analysis was performed on the spectra of the observed stars. A 3D-NLTE analysis was perf…
Red Clump stars have been found to be enhanced in lithium relative to stars at the tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB), which is unexpected in current stellar models. At the TRGB, stars undergo the helium flash, during which helium burning briefly generates roughly $10^9 \, L_\odot$ of power and drives vigorous convection within the star's core. The helium-burning shell excites large fluxes of internal gravity waves. Here we investigate whether or not these waves can deposit enough heat to destabilize the hydrogen-burning shell, generate a convection zone there, and thereby drive the Cameron-Fo…
Observations demonstrate that the surface abundance of $^7{\rm Li}$ in low-mass stars changes dramatically between the tip of the red giant branch and the red clump. This naturally suggests an association with the helium core flash, which occurs between these two stages. Using stellar evolution models and a simple, ad hoc mixing prescription, we demonstrate that the $^7{\rm Li}$ enhancement can be explained by a brief chemical mixing event that occurs at the time of the first, strongest He sub-flash. The amount of $^7{\rm Be}$ already present above the H-burning shell just before the flash, on…
We report novel observational evidence on the evolutionary status of lithium-rich giant stars by combining asteroseismic and lithium abundance data. Comparing observations and models of the asteroseismic gravity-mode period spacing $ΔΠ_{1}$, we find that super-Li-rich giants (SLR, A(Li)~$> 3.2$~dex) are almost exclusively young red-clump (RC) stars. Depending on the exact phase of evolution, which requires more data to refine, SLR stars are either (i) less than $\sim 2$~Myr or (ii) less than $\sim40$~Myr past the main core helium flash (CHeF). Our observations set a strong upper limit for the …
WIYN/HYDRA spectra in the Li 6708 Angstrom region have been obtained for 332 probable members of the old open cluster, NGC 6819. Preliminary analysis shows a pattern of Li depletion from the top of the turnoff to the base of the giant branch. Starting one magnitude below the level of the clump, all brighter giants have A(Li) below 1.0, with most having upper limits below 0.5. Star W007017, located BELOW the first-ascent red giant bump is Li-rich with A(Li) = 2.3. As a highly probable single-star astrometric and radial-velocity cluster member, its discrepant asteroseismic membership could be a …
The vast majority of stars with mass similar to the Sun are expected to only destroy lithium over the course of their lives, via low-temperature nuclear burning. This has now been supported by observations of hundreds of thousands of red giant stars (Brown et al. 1989, Kumar et al. 2011, Deepak et al. 2019, Singh et al. 2019, Casey et al. 2019). Here we perform the first large-scale systematic investigation into the Li content of stars in the red clump phase of evolution, which directly follows the red giant branch phase. Surprisingly we find that all red clump stars have high levels of lithiu…
In this work, we studied the distribution of lithium abundances in giants as a function of stellar mass. We used a sample of 1240 giants common among Kepler photometric and LAMOST medium resolution (R $\approx$ 7500) spectroscopic survey fields. The asteroseismic $Δ$P - $Δν$ diagram is used to define core He-burning red clump giants and red giant branch stars with inert He-core. Li abundances have been derived using spectral synthesis for the entire sample stars. Directly measured values of asteroseismic parameters $Δ$P(or $ΔΠ_1$) and $Δν$ are either taken from the literature or measured in th…
Aims: We report the discovery of a young lithium rich giant, HD 16771, in the core-helium burning phase that does not seem to fit existing proposals of Li synthesis near the luminosity function bump or during He-core flash. We aim to understand the nature of Li enrichment in the atmosphere of HD 16771 by exploring various Li enhancement scenarios. Methods: We have collected high-resolution echelle spectra of HD 16771 and derived stellar parameters and chemical abundances for 27 elements by either line equivalent widths or synthetic spectrum analyses. Results: HD 16771 is a Li-rich (log(n(Li))=…
Lithium abundances for red giants in the GALAH DR3 survey are studied. The rare examples of Li-enriched stars with abundances A(Li) $\geq 1.5$ are confirmed to be He-core burning stars belonging to or evolved from the red clump with similar masses and metallicity: $M\simeq 1.1\pm0.2{\rm M_\odot}$ and [Fe/H] $\simeq-0.3\pm0.3$. Li enrichment over the Li abundance present in a star's predecessor at the tip of the red giant branch likely occurs in all these red clump stars. Examination of the elemental abundances (C to Eu) in the GALAH catalogue shows no anomalous abundances in red clump giants a…
We investigate the properties of 1262 red giant stars with high photospheric abundances of lithium observed by the GALAH and \Ktwo-HERMES surveys, and discuss them in the context of proposed mechanisms for lithium enrichment and re-depletion in giant stars. We confirm that Li-rich giants are rare, making up only 1.2 per cent of our giant star sample. We use stellar parameters from the third public data release from the GALAH survey and a Bayesian isochrone analysis to divide the sample into first-ascent red giant branch and red clump stars, and confirm these classifications using asteroseismic…
Known sources of lithium (Li) in the universe include the big bang, novae, asymptotic giant branch stars, and cosmic ray spallation. During their longer-lived evolutionary phases, stars are not expected to add to the Li budget of the Galaxy, but to largely deplete it. In this context, recent analyses of Li data from GALAH and LAMOST for field red clump (RC) stars have concluded that there is the need for a new production channel of Li, ubiquitous among low-mass stars, and that would be triggered on the upper red giant branch (RGB) or at helium ignition. This is distinct from the "Li-rich giant…
The temperature distribution of field Li-rich red giants suggests the presence of a population of Li-rich red clump (RC) stars. One proposed explanation for this population is that all stars with masses near 2 $M_\odot$ experience a short-lived phase of Li-richness at the onset of core He-burning. Many of these stars have low 12C/13C, a signature of deep mixing that is presumably associated with the Li regeneration. To test this purported mechanism of Li enrichment, we measured abundances in 38 RC stars and 6 red giant branch (RGB) stars in four open clusters selected to have RC masses near 2 …
In this Letter, we report on a low-resolution spectroscopic survey for Li-rich K giants among 2000 low mass (M <= 3 Msun) giants spanning the luminosity range from below to above the luminosity of the clump. Fifteen new Li-rich giants including four super Li-rich K giants (A(Li) >= 3.2) were discovered. A significant finding is that there is a concentration of Li-rich K giants at the luminosity of the clump or red horizontal branch. This new finding is partly a consequence of the fact that our low-resolution survey is the first large survey to include giants well below and above the RGB bump a…
The formation histories of lithium-rich and carbon-rich red giants are not yet understood. It has been proposed that the merger of a helium-core white dwarf with a red giant branch star might provide a solution. We have computed an extended grid of post-merger evolution models and combined these with predictions of binary star population synthesis. The results strongly support the proposal that the merger of a helium white dwarf with a red giant branch star can provide the progenitors of both lithium-rich red clump stars and early-R carbon stars. The distribution of post-merger models in $T_{\…
It has recently been suggested that all giant stars with mass below 2 $M_{\odot}$ suffer an episode of surface lithium enrichment between the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and the red clump (RC). We test if the above result can be confirmed in a sample of RC and RGB stars that are members of open clusters. We discuss Li abundances in six open clusters with ages between 1.5 and 4.9 Gyr (turn-off masses between 1.1 and 1.7 $M_{\odot}$). These observations are compared with the predictions of different models that include rotation-induced mixing, thermohaline instability, mixing induced by th…
In this article, we speculate on the possible mechanisms for Li enhancement origin in RGB stars based on a large data set of around 340,299 stars collected from the GALAH survey combined with the Gaia astrometry. Data has 51,982 low mass (M$\leq$ 2M$_{\odot}$) RGB stars with reliable atmospheric parameters. The data set shows a well populated RGB with well-defined luminosity bump and red clump with significant number of stars at each of these two key phases. We found 335 new Li-rich RGB stars with Li abundance, A(Li) $\geq$ 1.80 $\pm$ 0.14 dex, of which 20 are super Li-rich with A(Li) $\geq$ 3…
Using the sample of 348 stars from the PennState-Torun Centre for Astronomy Planet Search, for which uniformly determined atmospheric parameters are available, with chemical abundances and rotational velocities presented here, we investigate various channels of Li enrichment in giants. Our work is based on the HET/HRS spectra. The A(Li) was determined from the 670.8nm line, while we use a more extended set of lines for alpha-elements abundances. In a series of K-S tests, we compare Li-rich giants with other stars in the sample. We also use available IR photometric and kinematical data in searc…
We present a search for post-main-sequence field stars in the Galaxy with atypically large lithium abundances. Using moderate-resolution spectra taken as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, along with high-resolution followup spectroscopy from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, we identify 23 post-turnoff stars with log epsilon(Li) greater than 1.95, including 14 with log epsilon(Li) > 2.3 and 8 with log epsilon(Li) > 3.0, well above the low level expected for evolved stars. Comparison with theoretical isochrones indicates that some of our Li-rich stars are affiliated with the upper red giant branc…
Context: A small number of K-type giants on the red giant branch (RGB) is known to be very rich in lithium (Li). This fact is not accounted for by standard stellar evolution theory. The exact phase and mechanism of Li enrichment is still a matter of debate. Aims: Our goal is to probe the abundance of Li along the RGB, from its base to the tip, to confine Li-rich phases that are supposed to occur on the RGB. Methods: For this end, we obtained medium-resolution spectra with the FLAMES spectrograph at the VLT in GIRAFFE mode for a large sample of 401 low-mass RGB stars located in the Galactic bul…
The observed amount of lithium for low metallicity population II stars (known as the Spite plateau) is a factor of $\sim 3-5$ lower than the predictions of the standard cosmology. Since the observations are limited to the local Universe (halo stars, globular clusters and satellites of the Milky Way) it is possible that certain physical processes may have led to the spatial separation of lithium and local reduction of [Li/H]. We study the question of lithium diffusion after the cosmological recombination in sub-Jeans dark matter haloes, taking into account that more than 95% of lithium remains …
Theoretical models of stellar evolution predict that most of the lithium inside a star is destroyed as the star becomes a red giant. However, observations reveal that about 1% of red giants are peculiarly rich in lithium, often exceeding the amount in the interstellar medium or predicted from the Big Bang. With only about 150 lithium-rich giants discovered in the past four decades, and no distinguishing properties other than lithium enhancement, the origin of lithium-rich giant stars is one of the oldest problems in stellar astrophysics. Here we report the discovery of 2,330 low-mass (1 to 3$\…
Two Li-rich candidates, TYC 1338-1410-1 and TYC 2825-596-1, were observed with the new high-resolution echelle spectrograph, LAMOST/HRS. Based on the high-resolution and high-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) spectra, we derived stellar parameters and abundances of 14 important elements for the two candidates. The stellar parameters and lithium abundances indicate that they are Li-rich K-type giants, and they have A(Li)$_\mathrm{NLTE}$ of 1.77 and 2.91 dex, respectively. Our analysis suggests that TYC 1338-1410-1 is likely a red giant branch (RGB) star at the bump stage, while TYC 2825-596-1 is most…
We have gathered near-infrared $zyJ$-band high resolution spectra of nearly 300 field red giant stars with known lithium abundances in order to survey their \species{He}{i} $λ$10830 absorption strengths. This transition is an indicator of chromospheric activity and/or mass loss in red giants. The majority of stars in our sample reside in the red clump or red horizontal branch based on their $V-J,M_V$ color-magnitude diagram and their Gaia \teff, \logg\ values. Most of our target stars are Li-poor in the sense of having normally low Li abundances, defined here as \eps{Li}~$<$~1.25. Over 90\% of…
We present the discovery of a super lithium-rich K giant star, G0928+73.2600. This red giant (T_eff = 4885 K and log g = 2.65) is a fast rotator with a projected rotational velocity of 8.4 km/s and an unusually high lithium abundance of A(Li) = 3.30 dex. Although the lack of a measured parallax precludes knowing the exact evolutionary phase, an isochrone-derived estimate of its luminosity places the star on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram in a location that is not consistent with either the red bump on the first ascent of the red giant branch or with the second ascent on the asymptotic giant b…
The lithium abundances for 378 G/K giants are derived with non-LTE correction considered. Among these, there are 23 stars that host planetary systems. The lithium abundance is investigated, as a function of metallicity, effective temperature, and rotational velocity, as well as the impact of a giant planet on G/K giants. The results show that the lithium abundance is a function of metallicity and effective temperature. The lithium abundance has no correlation with rotational velocity at vsini $<$ 10 km s$^{-1}$. Giants with planets present lower lithium abundance and slow rotational velocity (…
Early-type R stars and J stars are a special type of carbon star, having enhanced nitrogen ($\rm [N/Fe]\approx 0.5$), lithium, a low \iso{12}{C}/\iso{13}{C} ratio ($<15$) and no s-element enhancements. The merger of a helium white dwarf with a red giant is regarded to be a possible model for the origin of early-type R stars, but the details of nucleosynthesis are not clear. In this paper we investigate three possible channels for helium white-dwarf + red-giant mergers, and find that, amongst the three, only a high-mass helium white dwarf subducted into a low core-mass red giant can make an ear…
Weak G-band (WGB) stars are a rare class of cool luminous stars that present a strong depletion in carbon, but also lithium abundance anomalies that have been little explored in the literature since the first discovery of these peculiar objects in the early 50's. Here we focus on the Li-rich WGB stars and report on their evolutionary status. We explore different paths to propose a tentative explanation for the lithium anomaly. Using archive data, we derive the fundamental parameters of WGB (Teff, log g, log(L/Lsun)) using Hipparcos parallaxes and recent temperature scales. From the equivalent …
Lithium abundances in open clusters are a very effective probe of mixing processes, and their study can help to understand the large depletion of lithium in the Sun. Due to its age and metallicity, the open cluster M67 is especially interesting on this regard. Many studies on lithium abundances in M67 have already been performed, but a homogeneous global analysis of lithium in stars from subsolar up to the most massive members, was never accomplished for a large sample based on high-quality spectra. We tested our non-standard models, which were calibrated using the Sun with observational data.…
We present measurements of the V and I band magnitudes of red clump stars in 15 nearby galaxies obtained from recently published homogenous HST photometry. Supplementing these results with similar data for another 8 galaxies available in the literature the populational effects on the V and I band magnitudes of red clump stars were investigated. Comparing red clump magnitudes with the I-band magnitude of the TRGB in a total sample of 23 galaxies possessing very different environments we demonstrate that population effects strongly affect both the V and I band magnitude of red clump stars in a c…
High lithium-7 ($\mathrm{^7Li}$) abundances in giants are indicative of non-standard physical processes affecting the star. Mechanisms that could produce this signature include contamination from an external source, such as planets, or internal production and subsequent mixing to the stellar surface. However, distinguishing between different families of solutions has proven challenging, and there is no current consensus model that explains all the data. The lithium-6 ($\mathrm{^6Li}$) abundance may be a potentially important discriminant, as the relative $\mathrm{^6Li}$ and $\mathrm{^7Li}$ abu…
With an aim to shed light on the origin of Li anomaly observed in a small fraction of red giants, we carried out a spectroscopic study on the observational characteristics of selected 20 bright Li-rich giants, in comparison with a large number of normal late G-early K giants, where special attention was paid to clarifying any difference between two samples with respect to stellar parameters, rotation, activity, kinematic properties, and chemical abundances of Li, Be, C, O, Na, S, and Zn). Our targets are roughly divided into 'bump/clump group' and 'luminous group' according to the position on …
In this letter we characterise IRAS12556-7731 as the first lithium-rich M-type giant. Based on its late spectral type and high lithium content, and because of its proximity in angular distance to the ChamaeleonII star-forming region, the star was misclassified as a young low-mass star in a previous work. Based on HARPS data, synthetic spectral modelling, and proper motions, we derive the astrophysical parameters and kinematics of the star and discuss its evolutionary status. This solar-mass red giant (Teff=3460+/-60K and log(g)=0.6+/-0.2) is characterised by a relatively fast rotation (v sin(i…
According to standard stellar evolution, lithium is destroyed throughout most of the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars. However, a number of evolved stars on the red giant branch (RGB) and the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) are known to contain a considerable amount of Li, whose origin is not always understood well. Here we present the latest development on the observational side to obtain a better understanding of Li-rich K giants (RGB), moderately Li-rich low-mass stars on the AGB, as well as very Li-rich intermediate-mass AGB stars possibly undergoing the standard hot bottom burni…
Lithium is one of the few elements produced during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in the early universe. Moreover, its fragility makes it useful as a proxy for stellar environmental conditions. As such, the lithium abundance in old systems is at the core of different astrophysical problems. Stars in the lower red giant branch allow studying globular clusters where main sequence stars are too faint to be observed. We use these stars to analyze the initial Li content of the clusters and compare it to cosmological predictions, to measure spreads in Li between different stellar populations, and to s…
Magnetic fields impede the onset of convection, thereby altering the thermal structure of a convective envelope in a low mass star: this has an effect on the amount of lithium depletion in a magnetized star. In order to quantify this effect, we have applied a magneto-convective model to two low mass stars for which lithium abundances and precise structural parameters are known: YY Gem and CU Cnc. For both stars, we have obtained models which satisfy empirical constraints on the following parameters: R, L, surface magnetic field strength, and Li abundance. In the case of YY Gem, we have obtaine…
A survey of red giants in the globular cluster M3 with the Hydra multi-object spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5-m telescope indicated a prominent Li I 6707 $Å$ feature in the red giant vZ 1050. Follow-up spectroscopy with the ARC 3.5-m telescope confirmed this observation and yielded a derived abundance of A(Li)$_{NLTE}$ = 1.6 $\pm$ 0.05. In addition, the high oxygen and low sodium abundances measured from the same spectrum suggest that vZ 1050 is a first generation cluster star. The location vZ 1050 above the horizontal branch and blueward of the red giant branch in the cluster's color-magnitude d…
In this study, we explore the evolution of lithium in giant stars based on data assembled from the literature on asteroseismology and Li abundances for giants. Our final sample of 187 giants consists of 44 red giant branch (RGB), 140 core He-burning (CHeB) and three giants with an unclassified evolutionary phase. For all 187 stars, the seismic parameters $ν\rm_{max}$ (frequency of maximum oscillation power) and $Δν$ (large frequency spacing) are available, while $ΔΠ\rm_{1}$ (the asymptotic gravity-mode period spacing) is available for a subset of 64. For some of the CHeB giants, mass estimates…
Colour-magnitude diagrams (CMD) of the SMC star cluster NGC419, derived from HST/ACS data, reveal a well-delineated secondary clump located below the classical compact red clump typical of intermediate-age populations. We demonstrate that this feature belongs to the cluster itself, rather than to the underlying SMC field. Then, we use synthetic CMDs to show that it corresponds very well to the secondary clump predicted to appear as a result of He-ignition in stars just massive enough to avoid electron-degeneracy settling in their H-exhausted cores. The main red clump instead is made of the sli…
We present a sample of about 120,000 red clump candidates selected from the LAMOST DR2 catalog based on the empirical distribution model in the effective temperature vs. surface gravity plane. Although, in general, red clump stars are considered as the standard candle, they do not exactly stay in a narrow range of absolute magnitude, but may extend to more than 1 magnitude depending on their initial mass. Consequently, conventional oversimplified distance estimations with assumption of fixed luminosity may lead to systematic bias related to the initial mass or the age, which may potentially af…
The determination of Li and proton-capture element abundances in globular cluster (GC) giants allows us to constrain several key questions on the multiple population scenarios in GCs, from formation and early evolution, to pollution and dilution mechanisms. In this Letter, we present our results on Li abundances for a large sample of giants in the intermediate-metallicity GC NGC 6121 (M4), for which Na and O have been already determined by Marino et al. The stars analyzed are both below and above the red giant branch bump luminosity. We found that the first and second generation stars share th…
Large pristine samples of red clump stars are highly sought after given that they are standard candles and give precise distances even at large distances. However, it is difficult to cleanly select red clumps stars because they can have the same T$_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and log $g$ as red giant branch stars. Recently, it was shown that the asteroseismic parameters, $\rmΔ$P and $\rm{Δν}$, which are used to accurately select red clump stars, can be derived from spectra using the change in the surface carbon to nitrogen ratio ([C/N]) caused by mixing during the red giant branch. This change in [C/N] ca…
High-precision (sigma < 0.01) new JHK observations of 226 of the brightest and nearest red clump stars in the solar neighbourhood are used to determine distance moduli for the LMC. The resulting K- and H-band values of 18.47\pm0.02 and 18.49\pm0.06 imply that any correction to the K-band Cepheid PL relation due to metallicity differences between Cepheids in the LMC and in the solar neighborhood must be quite small.
We present an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler light curve of KIC 8263801, a red-giant star in the open cluster NGC 6866 that has previously been reported to be a helium-burning red-clump star. We extracted the frequencies of the radial and quadrupole modes from its frequency power spectrum and determined its properties using a grid of evolutionary models constructed with MESA. The oscillation frequencies were calculated using the GYRE code and the surface term was corrected using the Ball & Gizon(2014) prescription. We find that the star has a mass of $M/M_{\odot} = 1.793\pm 0.072$, age $…
In this paper, we report the discovery of two new super Li-rich K giants: HD~24960 and TYC~1751-1713-1. Based on high resolution ($R\approx 60,000$) spectroscopy, we have derived Li abundance of A(Li)$\approx$4.0~dex for both stars. Other elemental abundances are normal of typical K giants. Low ratios of [C/N] $\leq$ $-$ 0.25 and $^{12}C/^{13}C \leq10$ suggest that the stars are in upper RGB phase. Further, based on Gaia astrometry and secondary calibrations using Kepler asteroseismic and LAMOST spectroscopic data, we argue that both stars belong to red clump (RC) phase with core He-burning. R…
A possibility of applying 2MASS J, H, Ks, IPHAS r, i and MegaCam u, g photometry of red giants for determining distances to dark clouds is investigated. Red clump giants with a small admixture of G5-K1 and M2-M3 stars of the giant branch can be isolated and used in determining distances to separate clouds or spiral arms. The method is applied to an area of the North America and Pelican nebulae complex. Interstellar extinctions of background red giants can be also used for mapping dust surface density in the cloud.
We have determined precise stellar parameters and lithium abundances in a sample of 117 stars with basic properties very similar to the Sun. This sample selection reduces biasing effects and systematic errors in the analysis. We estimate the ages of our sample stars mainly from isochrone fitting but also from measurements of rotation period and X-ray luminosity and test the connection between lithium abundance, age, and stellar parameters. We find strong evidence for increasing lithium depletion with age. Our sample includes 14 stars that are known to host planets and it does not support recen…
The Gaia-ESO survey recently reported on a large sample of lithium (Li) abundance determinations for evolved stars in the rich open cluster Trumpler 20. They argue for a scenario where virtually all stars experience post main sequence mixing and Li is preserved in only two objects. We present an alternate explanation, where Li is normal in the vast majority of cluster stars and anomalously high in these two cases. We demonstrate that the Li upper limits in the red giants can be explained with a combination of main sequence depletion and standard dredge-up, and that they are close to the detect…
