Lithium Evolution of Giant Stars Observed by LAMOST and Kepler

Abstract

Mapping lithium evolution for evolved stars will provide restrictions and constraints on the fundamental stellar interior physical processes, which will shed further light on our understanding of the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Based on a sample of 1848 giants with known evolutionary phases and lithium abundances from the LAMOST-Kepler and LAMOST-K2 fields, we construct mass–radius diagrams to characterize the evolutionary features of lithium. The stars at red giant branch (RGB) phase show natural depletion along with their stellar evolution; particularly, there are no obvious crowd stars with anomalously high Li abundances near the bump. Most of the low-mass stars reaching their zero-age sequence of core helium burning (ZAHeB) have Li abundances around ∼1.0 dex, which shows an increase of Li abundance by ∼0.6 dex compared to the stars above the RGB bump. This suggests that helium flash may be responsible for moderate Li production, while for super Li-rich stars, some special mechanisms should be considered during helium flash. Other scenarios, such as mergers, could also be sources given that Li-rich stars can be found at any time during the steady-state phase of core He burning. During the core He-burning (HeB) phase, there is no indication of obvious lithium depletion.