Related papers: Observational constraints on AGB mass loss and its…
Mass-loss rates are one of the most relevant parameters determining the evolution of massive stars. In particular, the rates at which the star loses mass during the red-supergiant (RSG) phase is the least constrained by the observations or…
This brief review describes some of the observed properties of the populations of massive asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) found in nearby galaxies, with a focus on their luminosity functions, mass-loss rates…
Aims. In a first study, we characterised the properties of the gas component in the circumstellar envelopes surrounding a sample of 29 AGB stars with UV excesses. Now we intend to complement this information with an analysis of the dust…
The evolution and lifetimes of thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars suffer from significant uncertainties. We present a detailed framework for constraining model luminosity functions of TP-AGB stars using resolved…
We are currently studying carbon based dust types of relevance for carbon-rich AGB stars, to obtain a better understanding of the influence of the optical and chemical properties of the grains on the mass loss of the star. An investigation…
Low and intermediate mass stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through a dust-driven wind during the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase. Recent studies show that winds from late-type stars are far from being smooth. Mass-loss…
During the red giant phase, stars loose mass at the highest rate since birth. The mass-loss rate is not fixed, but varies from star-to-star by up to 5\%, resulting in variations of the star's luminosity at the tip of the red giant branch…
Low- and intermediate-mass stars eject much of their mass during the late, red giant branch (RGB) phase of evolution. The physics of their strong stellar winds is still poorly understood. In the standard model, stellar pulsations extend the…
A method of determining ages and masses of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars between 0.8 and $\sim$6 M$_\odot$ is demonstrated, based on comparing the star's position in the period--absolute-magnitude diagram to theoretical evolutionary…
Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars generally have spherically symmetric envelopes, whereas most post-AGB stars and Planetary Nebulae (PNe) show axisymmetric circumstellar envelopes. While various mechanisms for axisymmetric circumstellar…
The material lost through stellar winds of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars is one of the main contributors to the chemical enrichment of galaxies. The general hypothesis of the mass loss mechanism of AGB winds is a combination of…
The mass loss properties of carbon AGB stars are not very well constrained at present. A variety of empirical or theoretical formulae with different parameterisations are available in the literature and the agreement between them is…
We present an empirical determination of the mass-loss rate as a function of stellar luminosity and effective temperature, for oxygen-rich dust-enshrouded Asymptotic Giant Branch stars and red supergiants. To this aim we obtained optical…
We present asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models of solar metallicity, to allow the interpretation of observations of Galactic AGB stars, whose distances should be soon available after the first release of the Gaia catalogue. We find an…
Half or more of stars more massive than our Sun are orbited by a companion star in a binary system. Many binaries have short enough orbits that the evolution of both stars is greatly altered by an exchange of mass and angular momentum…
We present a novel approach to address dust production by low- and intermediate-mass stars. We study the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase, during which the formation of dust takes place, from the perspective of post-AGB and planetary…
Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) stars are relatively short lived (less than a few Myr), yet their cool effective temperatures, high luminosities, efficient mass-loss and dust production can dramatically effect the…
Dust formation and resulting mass loss around Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars with initial metallicity in the range of $0 \leq Z_{\rm ini} \leq 10^{-4}$ and initial mass $2\leq M_{\rm ini}/M_{\odot} \leq 5$ are explored by the…
We establish new constraints on the intermediate-mass range of the initial-final mass relation by studying white dwarfs in four young star clusters, and apply the results to study the evolution of stars on the thermally pulsing asymptotic…
In 1981, the idea of a superwind that ends the life of cool giant stars was proposed. Extreme OH/IR-stars develop superwinds with the highest mass-loss rates known so far, up to a few 10^(-4) Msun/yr, informing our understanding of the…