Related papers: The secular evolution of planetary nebula IC 418 a…
The mass loss properties of carbon AGB stars are not very well constrained at present. A variety of empirical or theoretical formulae with different parameterisations are available in the literature and the agreement between them is…
The stellar mass range 8<M/Mo<12 corresponds to the most massive AGB stars and the most numerous massive stars. It is host to a variety of supernova progenitors and is therefore very important for galactic chemical evolution and stellar…
In this paper we explore the dynamics of ionization bounded planetary nebulae after the termination of the fast stellar wind. When the stellar wind becomes negligible, the hot, shocked bubble depressurizes and the thermal pressure of the…
It is currently accepted that Hot-Bottom-Burning (HBB) in intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars prevents the formation of C~stars. Nevertheless, we present in this paper the results of some detailed evolutionary calculations…
Standard stellar evolution theory is inconsistent with the observed isotopic carbon ratio, 12C/13C, in evolved stars. This theory is also inconsistent with the 3He/H abundance ratios observed in Galactic HII regions, when combined with…
Evolutionary calculations of population I stars with initial masses $M_0=1M_\odot$, $1.5M_\odot$ and $2M_\odot$ were carried out up to the stage of the proto--planetary nebula. Selected models of post--AGB evolutionary sequences with…
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 present asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models of solar metallicity, to allow the interpretation of observations of Galactic AGB stars, whose distances should be soon available after the first release of the Gaia catalogue. We find an…
Aim: The late stages of stellar evolution are mainly governed by the mass of the stars. Low- and intermediate-mass stars lose copious amounts of mass during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) which obscure the central star making it…
A review is presented of the most relevant results obtained in the last few years on this rare class of astronomical sources. Multi-wavelength analysis of an increasing number of post-AGB stars reveal that they constitute a more…
We present results of the evolution of AGB stars of 3M_sol and 5M_sol with solar metallicity calculated with the Eggleton stellar evolution code (STARS), which has a fully implicit and simultaneous method for solving for the stellar…
There is now strong evidence that some stars have been born with He mass fractions as high as $Y \approx 0.40$ (e.g., in $\omega$ Centauri). However, the advanced evolution, chemical yields, and final fates of He-rich stars are largely…
We present high-resolution J-, H-, and K-band observations and the first H-K color image of the carbon star IRC +10216. The images were reconstructed from 6m telescope speckle interferograms using the bispectrum speckle interferometry…
We compute the mass and composition of dust produced by stars with masses in the range 1Msun<M<8 Msun and with a metallicity of Z=0.001 during their AGB and Super AGB phases. Stellar evolution is followed from the pre-main sequence phase…
This study calls attention to the importance of properly coupling the molecular opacities to the actual surface abundances of TP-AGB stars that experience the third dredge-up and/or hot-bottom burning, i.e. with surface abundances of carbon…
Context. The majority of stars that leave the main sequence are undergoing extensive mass loss, in particular during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of evolution. Observations show that the rate at which this phenomenon develops…
CRL 618 is an object that exhibits characteristics of both AGB and post-AGB star. It also displays a spectacular array of bipolar lobes with a dense equatorial region, which makes it an excellent object to study the development of…
Many disc-type post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars are chemically peculiar, showing underabundances of refractory elements in their photospheres that correlate with condensation temperature. The aim of this paper is to investigate…
As part of a reanalysis of galactic Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars at infrared (IR) wavelengths, we discuss a sample (357) of carbon stars for which mass loss rates, near-IR photometry and distance estimates exist. For 252 sources we…
Low- and intermediate-mass stars evolve through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), when an efficient mass-loss process removes a significant fraction of their initial mass. A substantial increase in the mass-loss rate at the end of the AGB…