A helium-flash-induced mixing event can explain the lithium abundances of red clump stars

MESA input/output files and plotting scripts for the paper:

A helium-flash-induced mixing event can explain the lithium abundances of red clump stars

Schwab (2020), ApJL

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ApJ...901L..18S/abstract

Update April 14, 2021

The original output files associated with this paper contained MESA models at {1.4,1.6,1.8,2.0} Msun.  These were not included in the paper plots/analysis and I never examined the files carefully.

These models did not complete successfully.  The tracks stop prematurely (i.e., before reaching the clump luminosity).  They also show discontinuities, consistent with the fact that some model stages did not complete successfully and hence did not provide a consistent starting condition for the subsequent stage.

Using the same* MESA input files, I have re-run these models using MESA release r15140 and now provide output corresponding to successful runs.  See the file RC_Li_r15140.tar.gz .

The models in the paper were run with the MESA development version r14125, so some small differences do appear.  I have included plots illustrating that the previously successful {0.9,1.0,1.2} Msun models shown in the paper exhibit only small differences, while the failed models at {1.4,1.6,1.8,2.0} Msun are qualitatively different.

Thanks to Laura Magrini for plotting these models and revealing that something was wrong.

*The 2.0 Msun model has one input change.  The first stage of the run uses a He core mass of 0.45 as a stopping criterion meant to occur before the He flash.  But at 2.0 Msun, the He flash has already occurred by this core mass.  So it was re-run using a 0.44 Msun stopping criterion in the first stage.