Related papers: A barium central star binary in the Type-I diamond…

A consensus has been reached in recent years that binarity plays an important role in the formation and evolution of a significant fraction of planetary nebulae (PNe). Utilizing the archived photometric data from the Zwicky Transient…

Barium stars are one of the important probes to understand the origin and evolution of slow neutron-capture process elements in the Galaxy. These are extrinsic stars, where the observed s-process element abundances are believed to have an…

We present the discovery of a huge (19$\arcmin$ $\times$ 16$\arcmin$) dust ring surrounding a bright (V = 10.60) red star. The dust ring has, at D = 700 pc, a diameter of 4 pc, and a central hole of ~1.5 pc across. Part of the shell is also…

We report the serendipitous discovery of a nitrogen-rich, mildly metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-1.08) giant star in a single-lined spectroscopic binary system found in the SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2)…

We study the impact of binary interaction processes on the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars using long-term monitoring of their radial velocity. Here we report on our results on the central stars of two planetary nebulae (PNe):…

The elemental abundances of ten planetary nebulae, derived with high accuracy including ISO and IUE spectra, are analysed with the aid of synthetic evolutionary models for the TP-AGB phase. Model prescriptions are varied until we achieve…

Field star BD+20 307 is the dustiest known main sequence star, based on the fraction of its bolometric luminosity, 4%, that is emitted at infrared wavelengths. The particles that carry this large IR luminosity are unusually warm, comparable…

Close binary central stars of planetary nebulae are key in constraining the poorly-understood common-envelope phase of evolution, which in turn is critical in understanding the formation of a wide-range of astrophysical phenomena (including…

The set of orbital elements available for chemically-peculiar red giant (PRG) stars has been considerably enlarged thanks to a decade-long CORAVEL radial-velocity monitoring of about 70 barium stars and 50 S stars. This paper presents a…

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 use imaging and spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to examine the properties of a bright planetary nebula (PN) projected within M31's young open cluster B477-D075. We show that the probability of a chance superposition of…

We present a detailed analysis of 26 barium stars, including dwarf barium stars, providing their atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, [Fe/H], vt) and elemental abundances. We aim at deriving gravities and luminosity classes of the sample…

A small but growing class of binaries containing hot ($T_{\rm eff}\sim10^5\rm~K$) white dwarfs (WDs) and rapidly rotating, apparently subgiant companions -- including the prototype, Abell 35 -- show companions that are too large and…

Many observed CEMP stars are found in binary systems and show enhanced abundances of $s$-elements. The origin of the chemical abundances of these CEMP-$s$ stars is believed to be accretion in the past of enriched material from a primary…

The planetary nebula SuWt 2 (PN G311.0+02.4), is an unusual object with a prominent, inclined central emission ellipse and faint bipolar extensions. It has two A-type stars in a proven binary system at the centre. However, the radiation…

The likely membership of the planetary nebula Abell 8 (PN G167.0--00.9) in the open cluster Bica 6 is confirmed by CCD spectra, UBV(RI)c photometry, and radial velocities for luminous cluster stars. The reddening, estimated distance, and…

Young planetary nebulae play an important role in stellar evolution when intermediate- to low-mass stars (0.8 ~ 8 M) evolve from the proto-planetary nebulae phase to the planetary nebulae phase. Many young planetary nebulae display distinct…

We obtain the chemical abundances of six barium stars and two CH subgiant stars based on the high signal-to-noise ratio and high resolution Echelle spectra. The neutron capture process elements Y, Zr, Ba, La, Eu show obvious overabundance…

In this contribution we give a progress report on our systematic study of a large sample of post-AGB stars. The sample stars were selected on the basis of their infrared colours and the selection criteria were tuned to discover objects with…

Binarity is believed to dramatically affect the history and geometry of mass loss in AGB and post-AGB stars, but observational evidence of binarity is sorely lacking. As part of a project to search for hot binary companions to cool AGB…