Our sun. II - Early mass loss of 0.1 solar mass and the case of the missing lithium

Abstract

It is demonstrated that early main-sequence mass loss by the sun can solve the case of the missing solar Li. The mass loss is 0.10-0.11 solar if the ZAMS Li-7/H ratio is taken to be 1.0 x 10 to the -9th, the maximum value observed in Population I main-sequence stars. The mass loss is 0.12-0.13 solar if ZAMS Li-7/H is taken to be 2.6 x 10 to the -9th, the meteoritic value. The required amount of mass loss is nearly independent of the mass-loss time scale. A simple formula exists to estimate the amount of mass loss required by an observed Li depletion. Constant-mass models burn Li and Be at temperatures of 2.5 and 3.3 million K, respectively. Higher initial temperatures are required in mass-losing models. A prescription has been developed to estimate these temperatures as a function of initial stellar mass and initial mass-loss rate.