Astron. Astrophys. 323, 86-97 (1997)

Lithium abundances in the young open cluster IC 2602 ^*

S. Randich ¹, N. Aharpour ², R. Pallavicini ³, C.F. Prosser ⁴ and J.R. Stauffer <sup>4

1</sup> European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
² Dipartimento Astronomia, Università di Firenze, Largo Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy
³ Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento, 1, I-90134 Palermo, Italy
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St. MS-66 Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Received 21 October 1996 / Accepted 23 December 1996

Abstract

We have obtained high-resolution spectra for 28 candidate late-type stars in the 30 Myr old cluster IC 2602. NLTE Li abundances have been derived from measured equivalent widths. The n(Li) -    and n(Li) - mass distributions for our sample stars have been compared with those of the Pleiades and Persei. Our data show that F stars in the three clusters have the same lithium content, which corresponds to the initial content for Pop. I stars. G and early-K IC 2602 stars are, on average, somewhat more Li-rich than their counterparts in the two slightly older clusters. Finally, the latest-type IC 2602 stars are heavily Li depleted, with their Li content being as low as the lowest measured among the Pleiades. As in the Pleiades and Per, a star-to-star scatter in lithium is observed among 30 Myr old late-K/early-K dwarfs in IC 2602, indicating that this spread develops in the pre-main sequence phases.

Key words: stars: abundances stars: evolution open clusters and association: individual: IC 2602

* Based on observations collected at ESO, La Silla

Send offprint requests to: S. Randich (srandich@eso.org)

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1997

Online publication: June 5, 1998

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