Related papers: The IACOB project: XVI. Surface helium abundances …
There is increasing evidence that single-star evolutionary models are inadequate to reproduce all observational properties of massive stars. Binary interaction has emerged as a key factor in the evolution of a significant fraction of…
Context. Growing evidence is revealing the crucial role of binarity in massive star evolution. This affects evolution models and demands a refinement of the available observational constraints. Aims. To investigate the possible evolutionary…
Massive stars burn hydrogen through the CNO cycle during most of their evolution. When mixing is efficient, or when mass transfer in binary systems happens, chemically processed material is observed at the surface of O and B stars. ON stars…
We present NLTE abundances of CNO for a sample of four O9 stars in the Galaxy, together with new determinations of their stellar parameters, $T_{\rm eff}$, $\log g$, $\epsilon$(He) and microturbulence. These new analyses take into account…
Massive stars play a key role in the evolution of the Universe. Our goal is to compare observed and predicted properties of single Galactic O stars to identify and constrain uncertain physical parameters and processes in stellar evolution…
The connection between helium-rich hot subdwarfs of spectral types O and B (He-sdB) has been relatively unexplored since the latter were found in significant numbers in the 1980's. In order to explore this connection further, we have…
Aims: Past observations of fast-rotating massive stars exhibiting normal nitrogen abundances at their surface have raised questions about the rotational mixing paradigm. We revisit this question thanks to a spectroscopic analysis of a…
Aims: We test predictions of evolution models on mixing of CNO-cycled products in massive stars from a fundamental perspective. Relative changes within the theoretical C:N:O abundance ratios and the buildup of helium are compared with…
Aims: Recent observations have challenged our understanding of rotational mixing in massive stars by revealing a population of fast-rotating objects with apparently normal surface nitrogen abundances. However, several questions have arisen…
We determine the radial abundance gradient of helium in the disc of the Galaxy from published spectra of 19 $\text{H}\thinspace \text{II}$ regions and ring nebulae surrounding massive O stars. We revise the Galactocentric distances of the…
We derive the effective temperatures and gravities of 461 OB stars in 19 young clusters by fitting the H-gamma profile in their spectra. We use synthetic model profiles for rotating stars to develop a method to estimate the polar gravity…
A significant fraction of massive stars are found in multiple systems. The effect of binarity on stellar evolution is poorly constrained. In particular, the role of tides and mass transfer on surface chemical abundances is not constrained…
The empirical distribution of projected rotational velocities (vsini) in massive O-type stars is characterized by a dominant slow velocity component and a tail of fast rotators. Binary interaction has been proposed to play a dominant role…
We report on the abundances of helium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in a larger sample of Galactic massive stars of ~7-20 M_sun near the main sequence, composed of apparently normal objects, pulsators of beta-Cephei- and SPB-type, and…
Lithium and zirconium abundances (the latter taken as representative for s-process enrichment) are determined for a large sample of massive Galactic O-rich AGB stars, for which high resolution optical spectroscopy has been obtained…
About a quarter of all post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are hydrogen-deficient. Stellar evolutionary models explain the carbon-dominated H-deficient stars by a (very) late thermal pulse scenario where the hydrogen-rich envelope is…
We have carried out a study of the chemical abundances of $^1$H, $^4$He, $^{12}$C, $^{13}$C, $^{14}$N, $^{15}$N, $^{16}$O, $^{17}$O, $^{20}$Ne and $^{22}$Ne in symbiotic stars (SSs) by means of a population synthesis code. We find that the…
We present ISO LWS observations of the proto-planetary nebula CRL 618, a star evolving very fast to the planetary nebula stage. In addition to the lines of 12CO, 13CO, HCN and HNC, we report on the detection of H2O and OH emission together…
Hot subdwarfs represent a poorly understood late phase of stellar evolution. While binary evolution plays an important role for B-subdwarfs (sdB), the origin of the He dominated O-subdwarfs (He-sdO) is unknown. We search for chemical…
The majority of hot subdwarf stars are low-mass core-helium-burning stars. Their atmospheres are generally helium deficient; however a minority have extremely helium-rich surfaces. An additional fraction have an intermediate surface-helium…