A super lithium-rich red-clump star in the open cluster Trumpler 5

Context. The existence of lithium-rich low-mass red giant stars still represents a challenge for stellar evolution models. Stellar clusters are privileged environments for this kind of investigation. Aims: To investigate the chemical abundance pattern of the old open cluster Trumpler 5, we observed a sample of four red-clump stars with high-resolution optical spectrographs. One of them (#3416) reveals extremely strong lithium lines in its spectrum. Methods: One-dimensional, local thermodynamic equilibrium analysis was performed on the spectra of the observed stars. A 3D-NLTE analysis was performed to derive the lithium abundance of star #3416. Results: Star #3416 is super Li-rich with A(Li) = 3.75 dex. The lack of 6Li enrichment (6Li/7Li < 2%), the low carbon isotopic ratio (12C/13C = 14 ± 3), and the lack of evidence for radial velocity variation or enhanced rotational velocity (vsini = 2.8 km s-1) all suggest that lithium production has occurred in this star through the Cameron & Fowler mechanism. Conclusions: We identified a super Li-rich core helium-burning, red-clump star in an open cluster. Internal production is the most likely cause of the observed enrichment. Given the expected short duration of a star's Li-rich phase, enrichment is likely to have occurred at the red clump or in the immediately preceding phases, namely during the He-flash at the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) or while ascending the brightest portion of the RGB.