Lithium depletion and the rotational history of exoplanet host stars

By J. Bouvier. 2008

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Israelian et al. (2004) reported that exoplanet host stars are lithium depleted compared to solar-type stars without detected massive planets, a result recently confirmed by Gonzalez (2008). We investigate whether enhanced lithium depletion in exoplanet host stars may result from their rotational history. We have developed rotational evolution models for slow and fast solar-type rotators from the pre-main sequence (PMS) to the age of the Sun and compare them to the distribution of rotational periods observed for solar-type stars between 1 Myr and 5 Gyr. We show that slow rotators develop a high degree of differential rotation between the radiative core and the convective envelope, while fast rotators evolve with little core-envelope decoupling. We suggest that strong differential rotation at the base of the convective envelope is responsible for enhanced lithium depletion in slow rotators. We conclude that lithium-depleted exoplanet host stars were slow rotators on the zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) and argue that slow rotation results from a long lasting star-disk interaction during the PMS. Altogether, this suggests that long-lived disks (> 5 Myr) may be a necessary condition for massive planet formation/migration.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/25d414f8ed13cc6f1429c6875d38b11154351992

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. C. Conroy
2. C. Mordasini
3. Th. Henning
4. Benjamin D. Johnson
5. Y. Alibert
6. A. Reiners
7. H. Klahr
8. J. Bouvier

In Instrumentation

1. C. Conroy
2. Benjamin D. Johnson
3. A. Reiners
4. C. Mordasini
5. G. Chabrier
6. M. Gudel
7. F. Gallet
8. Aaron Dotter

Citations in the corpus

• Stellar winds on the main-sequence - II. The evolution of rotation and winds (2015, methodology): “We follow the method of several previous studies (Irwin et al. 2007; Bouvier 2008; Hartman et al. 2009; Gallet & Bouvier 2013) by using percentiles of the rotational distributions to fit our rotational evolution models.”
• Extrasolar planet population synthesis - IV. Correlations with disk metallicity, mass, and lifetime (2012, background): “If the correlation of enhanced lithium depletion and the presence of massive planets can indeed be confirmed, then the lines of reasoning of Bouvier (2008) provide a way of relating disk lifetime and the formation probability of giant planets.”
• MAGNETIC BRAKING FORMULATION FOR SUN-LIKE STARS: DEPENDENCE ON DIPOLE FIELD STRENGTH AND ROTATION RATE (2012, background): “Thus, a prescription for calculating the stellar wind torque as a function of stellar parameters is a crucial ingredient in models for the rotational evolution of stars (e.g., Bouvier et al. 1997; Bouvier 2008; Denissenkov et al. 2010; Matt et al. 2012).”
• Improved angular momentum evolution model for solar-like stars II. Exploring the mass dependence (2015, unknown): “This new braking law contrasts with the well-known Kawaler (1988) prescription used in almost all angular momentum evolution models so far (e.g. Bouvier 2008; Irwin & Bouvier 2009; Denissenkov et al. 2010; Spada et al. 2011) as well as with the Kawaler-modified model proposed by Reiners & Mohanty…”
• Improved angular momentum evolution model for solar-like stars (2013, methodology): “A number of models have thus been proposed to account for these new observational results (e.g., Irwin et al. 2007; Bouvier 2008; Denissenkov et al. 2010; Spada et al. 2011; Reiners & Mohanty 2012).”
• MESA ISOCHRONES AND STELLAR TRACKS (MIST). I. SOLAR-SCALED MODELS (2016, background): “Second, current detailed evolutionary models (e.g., Bouvier 2008; Gallet & Bouvier 2013) suggest that low-mass stars (.”
• Effect of episodic accretion on the structure and the lithium depletion of low-mass stars and planet-hosting stars (2010, background): “…cluster IC 4665 (Jeffries et al. 2009), or the spread in Li abundance in cool dwarfs of about a solar mass reported in the Pleiades (King et al. 2010), although other scenarios, based either on the star rotational history (Bouvier 2008) or stellar activity (King et al. 2010), have been suggested.”
• RADIUS-DEPENDENT ANGULAR MOMENTUM EVOLUTION IN LOW-MASS STARS. I (2011, background): “An additional effect which may play a role in solar-type stars is rotational decoupling between the radiative core and the convective envelope (Bouvier 2008; Irwin & Bouvier 2009); we revisit this point later.”
• Lithium depletion in solar-like stars: no planet connection (2010, background): “Recently, it has been suggested that the presence of planets around a star could affect the evolution of the photospheric lithium abundance (e.g., Bouvier 2008).”
• Angular momentum transport in stellar interiors constrained by rotational splittings of mixed modes in red giants (2012, background): “…solar-type stars in open clusters suggest that slow rotators develop a high degree of differential rotation between the radiative core and the convective envelope, while solid-body rotation is favoured for fast rotators (Irwin et al. 2007; Bouvier 2008; Denissenkov et al. 2010; Denissenkov 2010).”