Related papers: Early Post Asymptotic Giant Branch Instability: Do…
(abbreviated) Measuring the surface abundances of AGB stars is an important tool for studying the effects of nucleosynthesis and mixing in the interior of low- to intermediate mass stars during their final evolutionary phases. The…
Detailed atmospheric abundances have been calculated for a sample of A-G supergiant stars with IR fluxes and/or high galactic latitudes. HD 172481 and HD 158616 show clear indications of being post-AGB stars that have experienced third…
Many aspects of the evolutionary phase in which Asymptotic Giant Branch stars (AGB stars) are in transition to become Planetary Nebulae (PNe) are still poorly understood. An important question is how the circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars…
The evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is mainly controlled by the rate at which these stars lose mass in a stellar wind. Understanding the driving mechanism and strength of the stellar winds…
We present new numerical hydrodynamical modelling of the evolution of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) mass loss fluctuations during the post-AGB/Planetary Nebula phase. These models show that after ionization, the observable effects of the…
Yellow Hypergiants (YHGs) are massive stars that are commonly interpreted to be in a post-red supergiant evolutionary state. These objects can undergo outbursts on timescales of decades, which are suspected to be due to instabilities in the…
Post-common-envelope binaries (PCEBs) containing a white dwarf (WD) and a main-sequence (MS) star can constrain the physics of common envelope evolution and calibrate binary evolution models. Most PCEBs studied to date have short orbital…
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars lose their envelopes by means of a stellar wind whose driving mechanism is not understood well. Characterizing the composition and thermal and dynamical structure of the outflow provides constraints that…
The Thermally-Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution has received attention only recently in galaxy evolution, but is now an important player in our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. Because it is…
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars play a key role in the enrichment of galaxies with heavy elements. Due to their large amplitude variability, the measurement of elemental abundances is a highly challenging task that has not been solved…
We investigate the effects of molecular opacities on the evolution of TP-AGB stars that experience the third dredge-up, i.e. with surface abundances of carbon and oxygen varying with time. To this aim, a routine is constructed to derive the…
We have investigated the dynamical interaction of low- and-intermediate mass stars (from 1 to 5 Msun) with their interstellar medium (ISM). In this first paper, we examine the structures generated by the stellar winds during the Asymptotic…
The slow, dense winds observed in evolved asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are usually attributed to a combination of dust formation in the dynamical inner atmosphere and momentum transfer from stellar photons interacting with the newly…
Mass loss through stellar winds governs the evolution of stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). In the case of carbon-rich AGB stars, the wind is believed to be driven by radiation pressure on amorphous carbon (amC) dust forming in the…
Intermediate mass stars (1-8 solar masses) evolve along the Asymptotic Giant Branch after completion of hydrogen and helium core burning. At the tip they lose for several ten to hundred thousand years copious amounts of mass and exhibit…
We investigate the main physical properties of low-metallicity Asymptotic Giant Branch stars, with the aim of quantifying the uncertainties that presently affect the predicted chemical yields of these stars, associated to mass loss and…
We present medium- and broad-band Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry of a sample of 35 central stars (CSs) of Planetary Nebulae (PNs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The observations were made with the WFPC2 and STIS instruments…
We investigate the formation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the inner circumstellar envelopes of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars. A dynamic model for periodically shocked atmospheres, which includes an extended…
Context: Intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars influence Galactic lithium evolution by ejecting surface material (including Li) via stellar winds. Internal gravity waves (IGW), excited by convective motions, drive turbulent…
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…