Lithium depletion in the sun: a study of mixing based on hydrodynamical simulations

Abstract

Based on radiation hydrodynamics modeling of stellar convection zones, a diffusion scheme has been devised describing the downward penetration of convective motions beyond the Schwarzschild boundary (overshoot) into the radiative interior. This scheme of exponential diffusive overshoot has already been successfully applied to AGB stars. Here we present an application to the Sun in order to determine the time scale and depth extent of this additional mixing, i.e. diffusive overshoot at the base of the convective envelope. We calculated the associated destruction of lithium during the evolution towards and on the main-sequence. We found that the slow-mixing processes induced by the diffusive overshoot may lead to a substantial depletion of lithium during the Sun's main-sequence evolution.

8 pages including 4 PostScript figures, using spackap.sty, Proc. of the workshop "Solar Composition and its Evolution - From Core to Corona, to appear in Space Science Reviews, also available from http://www.speckle.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/publications.html

References in corpus (1)

• Stellar evolution of low and intermediate-mass stars. IV. Hydrodynamically-based overshoot and nucleosynthesis in AGB stars

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• Addressing the acoustic tachocline anomaly and the lithium depletion problem at the same time
• Stability of latitudinal differential rotation in stars
• Transport of angular momentum and chemical species by anisotropic mixing in stellar radiative interiors
• The s-process weak component: uncertainties due to convective overshooting