Related papers: On the red-giant luminosity bump
The orders of magnitude variation in lithium abundances of evolved stars have long been a puzzle. Diluted signals, ambiguous evolutionary states and unknown masses have made it challenging to both map the expected lithium signals and…
Using 220 Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) redshifts and luminosities derived from the luminosity-variability relationship of Fenimore & Ramirez-Ruiz (2000), we show that there exists a significant correlation between the GRB luminosity and redshift.…
The stellar velocity dispersion as a function of the galactocentric radius of an early-type galaxy can generally be well approximated by a power law $\sigma \propto r^{\beta}$. However, some observed dispersion profiles show a deviation…
Red giant stars, both in the field and in globular clusters, present abundance anomalies that can not be explained by standard stellar evolution models. Some of these peculiarities clearly point towards the existence of extra-mixing…
The integrated properties of young star clusters are subject to large cluster-to-cluster variations because they depend directly on small numbers of bright stars. At ages at which red supergiants are expected to exist, these luminous but…
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…
The unexpected high bump in the UV part of the spectrum found in nearby giant elliptical galaxies, a.k.a. the UV upturn, has been a subject of debate. A remarkable progress has been made lately from the observational side, mainly involving…
This review describes the evidence for small-scale structure, `clumping', in the radiation line-driven winds of hot, massive stars. In particular, we focus on examining to what extent simulations of the strong instability inherent to…
Since 1996 we have known that the Galactic Center (GC) displays a core-like distribution of red giant branch (RGB) stars starting at ~ 10", which poses a theoretical problem, because the GC should have formed a segregated cusp of old stars.…
A recent study of Li abundances in field red giant stars suggested that the phenomenon of enriched surface Li may be a short-lived phase of red clump evolution for stars with masses near 2 M_sun. Although the exact mechanism for generating…
We show that the evolutionary track of a low-mass red giant should make an extended zigzag on the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram just after the bump luminosity, if fast internal rotation and enhanced extra mixing in the radiative zone bring the…
Stars twinkle because their light goes through the atmosphere. The same phenomenon is expected when the light of extra-galactic stars goes through a Galactic -- disk or halo -- refractive medium. Because of the large distances involved…
Massive stars die in catastrophic explosions, which seed the interstellar medium with heavy elements and produce neutron stars and black holes. Predictions of the explosion's character and the remnant mass depend on models of the star's…
We present an analysis of Li abundances in low mass stars (LMS) during the Red Giant Branch (RGB) and Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stages, based on a new determination of their luminosities and evolutionary status. By applying recently…
I discuss the age and helium abundance of the Galactic bulge stellar population. I present examples as to how age and helium abundance can be degenerate observationally, and thus, how unstated assumptions of the helium-metallicity relation…
I review the effects of dust obscuration in galaxies at both low and high redshifts, and briefly discuss a method to remove dust reddening from the emerging light of star-forming galaxies. I also analyze the evolution of the dust opacity in…
I review recent observational progress concerning the evolution of the morphological distribution of galaxies in the rich cluster environment and in the faint field population. By coupling HST imagery with ground-based spectroscopic…
We identify a vertical extension of the red clump stars in the color magnitude diagram (CMD) of a section of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). After subtracting the principal red clump component, we find a peak in the residual stellar…
Robust age estimates of red giant stars are now possible thanks to the precise inference of their mass based on asteroseismic constraints. However, there are cases where such age estimates can be highly precise yet very inaccurate. An…
Using a compilation of measurements of the stellar mass density as a function of redshift we can infer the cosmic star formation history. For z < 0.7 there is good agreement between the two star formation histories. At higher redshifts the…