Higher depletion of lithium in planet host stars: No age and mass effect

Abstract

Recent observational work by Israelian et al. has shown that sun-like planet host stars in the temperature range 700 K < Teff < 5850 K have lithium abundances that are significantly lower than those observed for "single" field stars. In this letter we use stellar evolutionary models to show that differences in stellar mass and age are not responsible for the observed correlation. This result, along with the finding of Israelian et al., strongly suggest that the observed lithium difference is likely linked to some process related to the formation and evolution of planetary systems. © ESO, 2010.