A&A 399, 603-616 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20021759

Rotational mixing in low-mass stars

I Effect of the -gradients in main sequence and subgiant Pop I stars

A. Palacios¹, S. Talon², C. Charbonnel¹ and M. Forestini<sup>3

1</sup>  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse, CNRS UMR5572, OMP, 14 Av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
²  Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal PQ H3C 3J7, Canada; CERCA, 5160 Boul. Décarie, Montréal PQ H3X 2H9, Canada
³  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Obs. de Grenoble, 414 rue de la Piscine, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

(Received 22 August 2002 / Accepted 22 October 2002 )

Abstract
We present a first set of results concerning stellar evolution of rotating low-mass stars. Our models include fully consistent transport of angular momentum and chemicals due to the combined action of rotation induced mixing (according to Maeder & Zahn 1998) and element segregation. The analysis of the effects of local variations of molecular weight due to the meridional circulation on the transport of angular momentum and chemicals are under the scope of this study. We apply this mechanism to low mass main sequence and subgiant stars of population I. We show that the so-called -currents are of major importance in setting the shape of the rotation profile, specially near the core. Furthermore, as shown by Talon & Charbonnel (1998) and Charbonnel & Talon (1999) using models without -currents, we confirm that rotation-induced mixing in stars braked via magnetic torquing can explain the blue side of the Li dip, as well as the low Li abundances observed in subgiants even when -currents are taken into account. We emphasize that variations are not to be neglected when treating rotation-induced mixing, and that they could be of great importance for latter evolutionary stages.

Key words: stars: interiors -- stars: rotation -- stars: abundances -- hydrodynamics -- turbulence

Offprint request: A. Palacios, apalacio@ast.obs-mip.fr

© ESO 2003