Related papers: A Bound on the Light Emitted During the TP-AGB Pha…
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase is the final stage of nuclear burning for low-mass stars. Although Milky Way globular clusters are now known to harbour (at least) two generations of stars they still provide relatively homogeneous…
We investigate the behaviour of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars between metallicities Z = 10-4 and Z = 10-8 . We determine which stars undergo an episode of flash-driven mixing, where protons are ingested into the intershell convection…
In this paper, we discuss how the integrated properties of intermediate-age single burst population, especially in the near-infrared, behave as a function of age and metallicity. Our models take into account all stellar evolutionary phases…
Context. Extremely reddened AGB stars lose mass at high rates of >10^-5 Msun/yr. This is the very last stage of AGB evolution, in which stars in the mass range 2.0--4.0 Msun (for solar metallicity) should have been converted to C stars…
We present the near- through mid-infrared flux contribution of thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) and massive red super giant (RSG) stars to the luminosities of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC,…
We searched for Tc in a sample of long period variables selected by stellar luminosity derived from Hipparcos parallaxes. Tc, as an unstable s-process element, is a good indicator for the evolutionary status of stars on the asymptotic giant…
Recent advances in constructing stellar evolution models of hydrogen-deficient post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are presented. Hydrogen-deficiency can originate from mixing and subsequent convective burning of protons in the deeper…
We present a new set of models for intermediate mass AGB stars (4.0, 5.0 and, 6.0 Msun) at different metallicities (-2.15<=Fe/H]<=+0.15). This integrates the existing set of models for low mass AGB stars (1.3<=M/M<=3.0) already included in…
Low-mass stars in the He-core-burning phase (HeCB) play a major role in stellar, galactic, and extragalactic astrophysics. The ability to predict accurately the properties of these stars, however, depends on our understanding of convection,…
We study the debated contribution from thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars in evolutionary population synthesis models. We investigate the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of a sample of 51 spectroscopically…
An analysis of high-resolution near-infrared spectra of a sample of 45 asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars towards the Galactic bulge is presented. The sample consists of two subsamples, a larger one in the inner and intermediate bulge, and…
The handful of available observations of AGB stars in Galactic Globular Clusters suggest that the GC AGB populations are dominated by cyanogen-weak stars. This contrasts strongly with the distributions in the RGB (and other) populations,…
We searched for Technetium (Tc) in a sample of bright oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars located in the outer galactic bulge. Tc is an unstable element synthesised via the s-process in deep layers of AGB stars, thus it is a…
AGB stars are responsible for producing a variety of elements, including carbon, nitrogen, and the heavy elements produced in the slow neutron-capture process ($s$-elements). There are many uncertainties involved in modelling the evolution…
We present the first evolutionary models of intermediate mass stars up to their thermal pulses which include effects of rotation on the stellar structure as well as rotationally induced mixing of chemical species and angular momentum. We…
This study calls attention to the importance of properly coupling the molecular opacities to the actual surface abundances of TP-AGB stars that experience the third dredge-up and/or hot-bottom burning, i.e. with surface abundances of carbon…
Observations of planetary nebulae (PNe) by Sterling, Dinerstein and Bowers have revealed abundances in the neutron-capture element Germanium (Ge) from solar to factors of 3 -- 10 above solar. The enhanced Ge is an indication that the…
Extended and updated grids of TP-AGB tracks have been implemented in the TRILEGAL population synthesis code, which generates mock stellar catalogues for a galaxy given its mass, distance, star formation history and age-metallicity relation,…
We present theoretical yields of H, $^{4}$He, $^{12}$C, $^{13}$C, $^{14}$N, and $^{16}$O for stars with initial masses between 0.8 and 8 M$_{\odot}$ and initial metallicities Z = 0.001, 0.004, 0.008, 0.02, and 0.04. We use the evolutionary…
Lithium and zirconium abundances (the latter taken as representative for s-process enrichment) are determined for a large sample of massive Galactic O-rich AGB stars, for which high resolution optical spectroscopy has been obtained…