Enrichment of Chemical Element 7Li in the Rotating Red Clump Star

Abstract

Abstract About 2 percent of red clump stars are found to be the lithium-rich and thus the surface lithium increases obviously in some red clump stars. The physical mechanism of the lithium enrichment in these stars has not yet been explained satisfactorily by the evolutionary models of single stars. The flash induced internal gravity wave mixing (i.e., IGW) could play a primary role in explaining the red clump star with lithium enrichment and it has a very significant impact on the internal structure and surface compositions of a star. Rotation can significantly increase the mixing efficiency of the internal gravity wave because the timescale for the enrichment event has been enlarged. Thermohaline mixing can explain the observed behavior of lithium on red giant stars that are more luminosity than the RGB bump. However, it has a very small effect on the diffusion of elements because its diffusion coefficient is much smaller than the one of IGW induced mixing after the core helium flash.