Probing Binary Architectures of Lithium-Rich Giants in GALAH with COSMIC and Stellar Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Sayeed, Maryum, Yang, Selina, Cinquegrana, Giulia, Ness, Melissa K., Breivik, Katelyn, Casey, Andrew R., Buder, Sven, Karakas, Amanda I.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Sayeed, Maryum
Yang, Selina
Cinquegrana, Giulia
Ness, Melissa K.
Breivik, Katelyn
Casey, Andrew R.
Buder, Sven
Karakas, Amanda I.
author_facet Sayeed, Maryum
Yang, Selina
Cinquegrana, Giulia
Ness, Melissa K.
Breivik, Katelyn
Casey, Andrew R.
Buder, Sven
Karakas, Amanda I.
contents Surface lithium is depleted when a star goes through the first dredge-up phase, yet $1\%$ of red giants are found to be Li-rich. The formation mechanism for these remains uncertain. We combine observational constraints from GALAH Li-rich giants, with the binary population synthesis code COSMIC to investigate system properties of these objects assuming binary mass transfer. By evolving 9 million binary systems, we find that binary histories most consistent with observational constraints are mass transfer from an intermediate-mass AGB donor to a main-sequence star now observed as a Li-rich red giant. In GALAH, $9\%$ of main-sequence stars have $\rm A(Li)=2.5-3.2$ dex making it plausible to create red giants with $\rm A(Li)=1.5-2.2 \; dex$ via main-sequence mass transfer, but cannot explain the more enriched giants $\rm A(Li) \gtrsim 2.2 \; dex$. Nucleosynthetic yields from stellar models show that AGB stars with initial masses of $4.25-5 \; \rm M_\odot$ and $8 \; \rm M_\odot$ contain the most Li in their ejecta. Intermediate-mass AGB stars comprise $29\%$ of COSMIC results, with present-day separations $s=3.3\pm0.5 \rm \; AU$ and mass ratios $q=0.5-1.6$. We achieve $95\%$ agreement in mean enhancements in $\rm (Ba, Y)$ between GALAH observations and stellar models of 6 and $8 \rm \; M_\odot$ AGB, assuming $1\%$ mass transfer efficiency. We find a low mass transfer efficiency best reproduces GALAH observations suggesting that the preferred mass transfer mechanism for Li-enrichment is via wind Roche Lobe Overflow. While we constrain the most plausible binary parameters assuming AGB mass transfer creates Li-rich giants, discrepancies in nucleosynthesis comparisons, and the small fraction of Li-enhanced main-sequence stars suggests additional enrichment mechanisms are likely.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_05359
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing Binary Architectures of Lithium-Rich Giants in GALAH with COSMIC and Stellar Models
Sayeed, Maryum
Yang, Selina
Cinquegrana, Giulia
Ness, Melissa K.
Breivik, Katelyn
Casey, Andrew R.
Buder, Sven
Karakas, Amanda I.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Surface lithium is depleted when a star goes through the first dredge-up phase, yet $1\%$ of red giants are found to be Li-rich. The formation mechanism for these remains uncertain. We combine observational constraints from GALAH Li-rich giants, with the binary population synthesis code COSMIC to investigate system properties of these objects assuming binary mass transfer. By evolving 9 million binary systems, we find that binary histories most consistent with observational constraints are mass transfer from an intermediate-mass AGB donor to a main-sequence star now observed as a Li-rich red giant. In GALAH, $9\%$ of main-sequence stars have $\rm A(Li)=2.5-3.2$ dex making it plausible to create red giants with $\rm A(Li)=1.5-2.2 \; dex$ via main-sequence mass transfer, but cannot explain the more enriched giants $\rm A(Li) \gtrsim 2.2 \; dex$. Nucleosynthetic yields from stellar models show that AGB stars with initial masses of $4.25-5 \; \rm M_\odot$ and $8 \; \rm M_\odot$ contain the most Li in their ejecta. Intermediate-mass AGB stars comprise $29\%$ of COSMIC results, with present-day separations $s=3.3\pm0.5 \rm \; AU$ and mass ratios $q=0.5-1.6$. We achieve $95\%$ agreement in mean enhancements in $\rm (Ba, Y)$ between GALAH observations and stellar models of 6 and $8 \rm \; M_\odot$ AGB, assuming $1\%$ mass transfer efficiency. We find a low mass transfer efficiency best reproduces GALAH observations suggesting that the preferred mass transfer mechanism for Li-enrichment is via wind Roche Lobe Overflow. While we constrain the most plausible binary parameters assuming AGB mass transfer creates Li-rich giants, discrepancies in nucleosynthesis comparisons, and the small fraction of Li-enhanced main-sequence stars suggests additional enrichment mechanisms are likely.
title Probing Binary Architectures of Lithium-Rich Giants in GALAH with COSMIC and Stellar Models
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05359