Related papers: Giant branch planetary systems: Dynamical and radi…

Key physical ingredients governing the evolution of massive stars are mass losses, convection and mixing in radiative zones. These effects are important both in the frame of single and close binary evolution. The present paper addresses two…

Almost all stars in the 1-8 Msun range evolve through the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), preplanetary nebula (PPN) and planetary nebula (PN) evolutionary phases. Most stars that leave the main sequence in a Hubble time will end their lives…

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…

The stellar winds of massive stars show large changes in mass-loss rates and terminal velocities during their evolution from O-star through the Luminous Blue Variable phase to the Wolf-Rayet phase. The luminosity remains approximately…

Our improving understanding of the life cycle of planetary systems prompts investigations of the role of the Galactic environment before, during and after Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stellar evolution. Here, we investigate the interplay…

Planetary nebulae are formed by the matter ejected by low-to-intermediate mass stars (~0.8-8 times the mass of the Sun) towards the end of their lives. As hydrogen and then helium fuel sources run out, stars expand. During these giant…

We have calculated the equilibrium properties of a star in a circular, equatorial orbit about a Super-Massive Black Hole (SMBH), when the star fills and overflows its Roche lobe. The mass transfer time scale is anticipated to be long…

Asteroid material is detected in white dwarfs (WDs) as atmospheric pollution by metals, in the form of gas/dust discs, or in photometric transits. Within the current paradigm, minor bodies need to be scattered, most likely by planets, into…

Given the inexorable increase in the Sun's luminosity, Earth will exit the habitable zone in ~1 Gyr. There is a negligible chance that Earth's orbit will change during that time through internal Solar System dynamics. However, there is a…

I review some aspects related to the influence of planets on the evolution of stars before and beyond the main sequence. Some processes include the tidal destruction of a planet on to a very young main sequence star, on to a low mass main…

The chemical enrichment of the Universe; the mass spectrum of planetary nebulae, white dwarfs and gravitational wave progenitors; the frequency distribution of Type I and II supernovae; the fate of exoplanets ... a multitude of phenomena…

Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…

Observations indicate that intermediate mass stars, binary stars, and stellar remnants often host planets; a complete explanation of these systems requires an understanding of how planetary orbits evolve as their central stars lose mass.…

Atmospheric escape from close-in Neptunes and hot Jupiters around sun-like stars driven by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiation plays an important role in the evolution of exo-planets and in shaping their ensemble properties. Intermediate…

The evolution of binary systems consisting of an asymptotic giant branch star of mass equal to 3 M_sun or 5 M_sun, and a main sequence star of mass equal to 0.4 M_sun or 0.6 M_sun with orbital periods > 200 days has been followed from the…

We study the stability of systems of three giant planets orbiting 3 - 8 M_Sol stars at orbital distances of >10 au as the host star ages through the Main Sequence (MS) and well into the White Dwarf (WD) stage. Systems are stable on the MS…

We know that planetary systems are just as common around white dwarfs as around main sequence stars. However, self-consistently linking a planetary system across these two phases of stellar evolution through the violent giant branch poses…

We discuss two important effects for the astrospheres of runaway stars: the propagation of ionizing photons far beyond the astropause, and the rapid evolution of massive stars (and their winds) near the end of their lives. Hot stars emit…

Mounting discoveries of extrasolar planets orbiting post-main sequence stars motivate studies aimed at understanding the fate of these planets. In the traditional "adiabatic" approximation, a secondary's eccentricity remains constant during…

How massive stars die -- what sort of explosion and remnant each produces -- depends chiefly on the masses of their helium cores and hydrogen envelopes at death. For single stars, stellar winds are the only means of mass loss, and these are…