Related papers: A Red Giants' Toy Story
We revisit the problem of why stars become red giants. We modify the physics of a standard stellar evolution code in order to determine what does and what does not contribute to a star becoming a red giant. In particular, we have run tests…
The Red-Giant Branch Bump (RGBB) is one of the most noteworthy features in the red-giant luminosity function of stellar clusters. It is caused by the passage of the hydrogen-burning shell through the composition discontinuity left at the…
In this series of papers, we address the long-standing question of why post-main-sequence stars expand into red giants (RGs) or red supergiants (RSGs). This paper aims to identify the key physical mechanism that drives stellar evolution…
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),…
We have calculated the evolution of low metallicity red giant stars under the assumption of deep mixing between the convective envelope and the hydrogen burning shell. We find that the extent of the observed abundance anomalies, and in…
In a 1992 paper of ours the role of opacity-driven thermal instabilities in shaping the course of stellar evolution was amply illustrated. This included the classical issue of ``{\it why stars become red giants"} as well as the subsequent…
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 formation of stars from gas drives the evolution of galaxies. Yet, it remains one of the hardest processes to understand when trying to connect observations of stellar and galaxy populations to models of large scale structure formation.…
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…
Asteroseismology has revealed that cores of red giants rotate about one order of magnitude faster than their convective envelopes. This paper attempts an explanation for this rotational state in terms of the theory of angular momentum…
The evolution of massive stars is affected by a variety of physical processes including convection, rotation, mass loss and binary interaction. Because these processes modify the internal chemical abundance profiles in multiple ways…
The activity of massive stars approaching core-collapse can strongly affect the appearance of the star and its subsequent supernova. Late-phase convective nuclear burning generates waves that propagate toward the stellar surface, heating…
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…
When the core hydrogen is exhausted during stellar evolution, the central region of a star contracts and the outer envelope expands and cools, giving rise to a red giant, in which convection occupies a large fraction of the star.…
A star expands to become a red giant when it has fused all the hydrogen in its core into helium. If the star is in a binary system, its envelope can overflow onto its companion or be ejected into space, leaving a hot core and potentially…
(ABRIDGED) We use a fully self-consistent evolutionary code to follow the rotational evolution of red giants, making a comprehensive attempt to assess the role of rotationally induced mixing in the development of abundance anomalies in…
The physical origin of red giants (RGs) and red supergiants (RSGs) remains a fundamental question in stellar astrophysics. In Paper II of this series, we investigate the physical mechanisms governing envelope expansion toward the RG/RSG…
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…
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,…
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…