Rotational Mixing and Lithium Depletion

TL;DR

This paper reviews how stellar rotation influences lithium depletion in stars, discussing observational evidence, recent developments, uncertainties in models, and possible environmental and planetary effects on stellar rotation and lithium levels.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of rotational mixing's role in lithium depletion, including new insights into late-age mixing suppression, binary mergers, and environmental impacts.

Findings

Rotation causes dispersion in lithium among coeval stars.

Lithium depletion rates decay with stellar age.

Environmental factors and planet presence may influence stellar rotation and lithium levels.

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.