Bibcode
Sousa, S. G.; Santos, N. C.; Israelian, G.; Delgado Mena, E.; Fernandes, J.; Mayor, M.; Udry, S.; Domínguez Cerdeña, C.; Rebolo, R.; Randich, S.
Bibliographical reference
16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun. ASP Conference Series, Vol. 448, proceedings of a conference held August 28- September 2, 2010 at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Edited by Christopher M. Johns-Krull, Matthew K. Browning, and Andrew A. West. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2012., p.81
Advertised on:
12
2011
Citations
2
Refereed citations
2
Description
The lithium (Li) abundance measured in the solar atmosphere is 140 times
smaller than expected considering the proto-solar value. Furthermore,
measurements of Li abundance made for many stars similar to the Sun
reveal a large dispersion. These observations have defied the models of
light element depletion for decades. We present a strong evidence for a
correlation between Li depletion and the presence of planets. This
result comes from the analysis of an unbiased sample of solar-analogue
stars with and without planets detected, and for which precise
spectroscopic stellar parameters were derived in an uniform way. Planet
host stars are found to have typically only 1% of the primordial Li
abundance while about 50% of the solar analogues without detected
planets have on average ten times more Li. In addition, stellar
evolutionary models were used to show that differences in stellar mass
and age cannot be responsible for the observed correlation. These
results suggest that the observed lithium difference is likely linked to
some process related to the formation and evolution of planetary
systems.