Issue |
A&A
Volume 386, Number 3, May II 2002
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 1039 - 1043 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20020338 | |
Published online | 15 May 2002 |
Planet accretion and the abundances of lithium isotopes
1
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain e-mail: (jmontalb, rrl)@ll.iac.es
2
Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, 00040 Monteporzio, Italy e-mail: montalbn@coma.mporzio.astro.it
3
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
Corresponding author: J. Montalbán, montalbn@coma.mporzio.astro.it
Received:
17
December
2001
Accepted:
5
March
2002
Planet accretion onto solar type stars may significantly change the stellar
atmospheric abundances of 6Li and 7Li if it
takes place after the star has arrived at the main
sequence. Ingestion of planets at an earlier phase will not affect theses
abundances because of extensive pre-main sequence mixing and burning. We present
quantitative estimates of the main sequence evolution of stellar surface lithium
abundances after planet ingestion.
At solar metallicities, for stellar masses in the range
~1.3–1.1 , a large
fraction of the ingested 6Li is
likely to be preserved during the whole main sequence lifetime according to the
standard model. Preservation of the less fragile 7Li isotope occurs in a larger
mass range ~1.3–0.9
. At high metallicities typical of planet
host stars, the ranges of masses are slightly
reduced essentially due to the thicker convective zones. Further reduction is
expected if non-standard processes cause extra-mixing of material below the base
of the convective zone, but even in this case there are stellar masses where both
isotopes are significantly preserved. We conclude
that there is a range of stellar effective temperature where migration and
accretion of planets and planetary material can be empirically tested using
high-resolution spectroscopy of the lithium isotopes.
Key words: stars: evolution / stars: abundances
© ESO, 2002
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