Related papers: Why do low-mass stars become red giants?
In spite of the spectacular progress accomplished by stellar evolution theory some simple questions remain unanswered. One of these questions is ``Why do stars become Red Giants?''. Here we present a relatively simple analytical answer to…
This review discusses the causes, nature, importance and observational evidence of mass loss by red supergiants. It arrives at the perception that mass loss finds its origin in the gravity which makes the star a star in the first place, and…
Massive stars less massive than ~30 Msol evolve into a red supergiant after the main sequence. Given a standard IMF, this means about 80% of all single massive stars will experience this phase. RSGs are dominated by convection, with a…
How massive stars end their lives remains an open question in the field of star evolution. While the majority of stars above 9 M_sun will become red supergiants (RSGs), the terminal state of these massive stars can be heavily influenced by…
Mass-loss rates during the red supergiant phase are very poorly constrained from an observational or theoretical point of view. However, they can be very high, and make a massive star lose a lot of mass during this phase, influencing…
In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition has significantly improved. This notwithstanding, updated stellar models are still affected by significant and,…
Planet searches around evolved giant stars are bringing new insights to planet formation theories by virtue of the broader stellar mass range of the host stars compared to the solar-type stars that have been the subject of most current…
Red-giant stars are low- to intermediate-mass ($M \lesssim 10$~M$_{\odot}$) stars that have exhausted hydrogen in the core. These extended, cool and hence red stars are key targets for stellar evolution studies as well as galactic studies…
A scatter plot of exoplanet mass against red giant host star radius demonstrates an interesting positive trend: larger stars have more massive planets. This implies that the evolution of a star towards a red giant affects the masses of…
The impact of rotation on the properties of low-mass stars at different evolutionary stages is first described by discussing the properties of stellar models computed with shellular rotation. The observational constraints that are currently…
A new model is proposed in which typical galaxies form most of their stellar mass in a phase with an intrinsically red stellar population. In the standard picture, galaxies with intrinsically red stellar populations are believed to have old…
Over much of the initial mass function, stars are destined to become luminous and cool red giants. They may then be able to produce dust in an atmosphere which has been elevated by strong radial pulsations, and hence drive a wind. The…
Recent observations have demonstrated a significant growth in the integrated stellar mass of the red sequence since z=1, dominated by a steadily increasing number of galaxies with stellar masses M* < 10^11 M_sun. In this paper, we use the…
Close-in planets are in jeopardy as their host stars evolve off the main sequence to the subgiant and red giant phases. In this paper, we explore the influences of the stellar mass (in the range 1.5--2\Mso ), mass-loss prescription, planet…
Core collapse of dense massive star clusters is unavoidable and this leads to the formation of massive objects, with a mass up to 1000 $\msun$ and even larger. When these objects become stars, stellar wind mass loss determines their…
When low- and intermediate-mass stars evolve off the main sequence, they expand and cool into the red giant stages of evolution, which include those associated with shell H burning (the red giant branch), core He burning (the red clump),…
In spite of the great effort made in the last decades to improve our understanding of stellar evolution, significant uncertainties still remain due to our poor knowledge of some complex physical processes that still require an empirical…
The evolution of low-mass stars into red giants is still poorly understood. During this evolution the core of the star contracts and, simultaneously, the envelope expands -- a process known as the `mirror'. Additionally, there is a short…
Stars are unique bodies of the Universe where self-gravity compress matter to such high temperature and density that several nuclear fusion reactions ignite, providing enough feedback against further compression for a time that can be even…
Rotation appears as a dominant effect in massive star evolution. It largely affects all the model outputs: inner structure, tracks, lifetimes, isochrones, surface compositions, blue to red supergiant ratios, etc. At lower metallicities, the…