Exploration of Chromospheric Neutral Helium Absorption Lines in Lithium-Rich Red giant Stars

We have recently discovered that more than half of the field red giants with anomalously large Li abundances also have strong He I absorption lines at 10830 Å. This suggests that fresh Li has been recently synthesized in a dynamic event which has also induced significant activity in the normally quiescent chromospheres of these evolved, mostly red clump stars. In this presentation we will summarize the results of our first large-sample exploration, published in 2022, of this Li-He connection in red giants. Then we will describe new observational studies to explore different aspects of the relationship between these two light-element spectral features. First, we are testing a possible link between large Li abundances and recent arrival on the red clump (red horizontal branch) by gathering He I 10830 Å spectra in Kepler field red giants that have asteroseismological evolutionary state information and known Li abundances. Second, we are obtaining both He I 10830 Å and Li I 6707 Å data for field giants in the APOGEE database that have measured rotational velocities. We will give updates on these and other future initiatives on the Li-He connection in red giants.