Rotational Mixing and Lithium Depletion

Abstract

I review basic observational features in Population I stars which strongly implicate rotation as a mixing agent; these include dispersion at fixed temperature in coeval populations and main sequence lithium depletion for a range of masses at a rate which decays with time. New developments related to the possible suppression of mixing at late ages, close binary mergers and their lithium signature, and an alternate origin for dispersion in young cool stars tied to radius anomalies observed in active young stars are discussed. I highlight uncertainties in models of Population II lithium depletion and dispersion related to the treatment of angular momentum loss. Finally, the origins of rotation are tied to conditions in the pre-main sequence, and there is thus some evidence that enviroment and planet formation could impact stellar rotational properties. This may be related to recent observational evidence for cluster to cluster variations in lithium depletion and a connection between the presence of planets and stellar lithium depletion.

6 pages, 1 figure, to appear in proceedings of IAU Symp. 268, in press

References in corpus (7)

• Enhanced lithium depletion in Sun-like stars with orbiting planets
• Mass-radius relation of low and very low-mass stars revisited with the VLTI
• The Monitor project: Rotation of low-mass stars in the open cluster NGC 2516
• A Correlation Between Pre-Main Sequence Stellar Rotation Rates and IRAC Excesses in Orion
• Deep MMT Transit Survey of the Open Cluster M37 III: Stellar Rotation at 550 Myr
• The Monitor project: Rotation periods of low-mass stars in M50
• Rotational studies in the Orion Nebula Cluster: from solar mass stars to brown dwarfs

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Understanding angular momentum transport in red giants: the case of KIC 7341231
• The GALAH Survey: Verifying abundance trends in the open cluster M67 using non-LTE spectroscopy
• Effects of rotation and magnetic fields on the lithium abundance and asteroseismic properties of exoplanet-host stars
• The Chemical Nature of the Young 120-Myr-old Nearby Pisces-Eridanus Stellar Stream Flowing through the Galactic Disk