Lithium abundances in the α Per cluster

Abstract

Lithium (Li) abundances are presented and discussed for 70 members of the 50-Myr-old open cluster α Per. More than half of the abundances are from new high-resolution spectra. The Li abundance in the F-type stars is equal to its presumed initial abundance, confirming previous suggestions that pre-main-sequence depletion is ineffective for these stars. Intrinsic star-to-star scatter in Li abundance among these stars is comparable to the measurement uncertainties. There is marginal evidence that the stars of high projected rotational velocity (v sin i) follow a different abundance versus temperature trend from the slow rotators. For stars cooler than about 5500 K, the Li abundance declines steeply with decreasing temperature and there develops a star-to-star scatter in the Li abundance. This scatter is shown to resemble the well-documented scatter seen in the 70-Myr-old Pleiades cluster. The scatter appears to be far less pronounced in the 30-Myr clusters, which have been studied for Li abundance.