Lithium Abundances in Wide Binaries with Solar-Type Twin Components

Abstract

We present high-resolution spectroscopic observations of the \ion{Li}{1} resonance line in a sample of 62 stars that belong to 31 common-proper motion pairs with twin F or G-type components. Photospheric abundances of lithium were derived by spectral synthesis analysis. For seven of the pairs, we have measured large lithium abundance differences. Eleven other pairs have components with similar lithium abundances. We cannot determine if the remaining 13 pairs have lithium differences because we did not detect the \ion{Li}{1} lines, and hence we can only provide upper limits to the abundances of both stars. Our results demonstrate that twin stars do not always share the same lithium abundances. Lithium depletion in solar-type stars does not only depend on age, mass, and metallicity. This result is consistent with the spread in lithium abundances among solar-type stars in the solar-age open cluster M67. Our stars are brighter than the M67 members of similar spectral type, making them good targets for detailed follow-up studies that could shed light on the elusive mechanism responsible for the depletion of lithium during the main-sequence evolution of the Sun and solar-type stars.