Evidence that Mass Loss on the Red Giant Branch Decreases with Metallicity

TL;DR

This study introduces a new observational method to measure RGB mass loss, revealing it decreases with metallicity, challenging existing models and indicating a need for revised stellar evolution theories.

Contribution

It presents an innovative approach using Galactic evolution markers to empirically measure RGB mass loss across different metallicities and stellar masses.

Findings

RGB mass loss decreases with metallicity.

Current models cannot reproduce the observed trend.

Mass loss may also decrease with stellar mass.

Abstract

Mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) influences stellar evolution, properties of stellar populations, and Galactic chemical enrichment, yet remains poorly constrained observationally. Current models provide limited insight into how stellar properties, particularly how metallicity and mass, affect RGB mass loss. Here, I introduce a new observational approach that uses the age-velocity-dispersion relation and the lower-mass boundary of red giants as precise evolutionary markers. These markers, informed by Galactic evolution, allow us to construct observational isochrones for field stars. By comparing masses of RGB stars and red clump (RC) stars at the same age in the Kepler sample, I derive empirical measurements of integrated RGB mass loss at several points in age and metallicity. Combining these new observational measurements with open-cluster studies, I showed that the integrated mass loss on the RGB decreases with metallicity, and may also decrease with stellar mass. The average mass-loss rate, which accounts for RGB lifetimes and the initial mass differences between RGB and RC stars at the same age, also shows a similar trend. These findings challenge current mass-loss prescriptions widely adopted in stellar evolutionary models, since none of them is able to produce the observed mass-loss trend without widely adjusting free parameters. This highlights an urgent need to revise mechanisms that govern RGB mass loss.