Higher depletion of lithium in planet host stars: no age and mass effect

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 512, March-April 2010


Article Number		L5
Number of page(s)		4
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201014125
Published online		19 March 2010

A&A 512, L5 (2010)

Letter to the Editor

Higher depletion of lithium in planet host stars: no age and mass effect

S. G. Sousa¹^,2, J. Fernandes³^,4, G. Israelian²^,5 and N. C. Santos¹

¹ Centro de Astrofísica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal e-mail: sousasag@astro.up.pt
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Centro de Física Computacional, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
⁴ Observatório Astronómico e Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
⁵ Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidade de La Laguna, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Received: 25 January 2010
Accepted: 27 February 2010

Abstract

Recent observational work by Israelian et al. has shown that sun-like planet host stars in the temperature range 700 K < T_eff < 5850 K have lithium abundances that are significantly lower than those observed for “single” field stars. In this letter we use stellar evolutionary models to show that differences in stellar mass and age are not responsible for the observed correlation. This result, along with the finding of Israelian et al., strongly suggest that the observed lithium difference is likely linked to some process related to the formation and evolution of planetary systems.

Key words: stars: evolution / stars: fundamental parameters / stars: abundances / stars: chemically peculiar / planetary systems

© ESO, 2010

What is OpenURL?

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.

If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.