Lithium abundances in AGB stars and a new estimate for the7Be life-time (original) (raw)
2016, Journal of Physics: Conference Series
In most cases RGB and AGB stars with M≤ 2M destroy Li (which is instead synthesized trough electron-captures on 7 Be). This occurs through the combined operation of mixing processes and proton captures, when H-burning operates close to the envelope. Observed Li abundances are however difficult to explain, as they cover a wide spread. Various uncertainties affect model attempts, but so far the largest one concerns the processes of bound and free ecaptures on 7 Be, hence its lifetime , whose known estimates are valid only for solar conditions. RGB and AGB stages have temperatures and densities below the envelope covering a wide range and differing from solar by up to a factor of five for T and up to five orders of magnitudes for ρ, hence extrapolations are unreliable. Recently, we presented an estimate of the 7 Be half-life based on a fully quantistic method that goes beyond the Debye-Hückel approximation. Here we discuss its consequences on Li nucleosynthesis in low mass AGB stars.
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