Related papers: A surprisingly large asymmetric ejection from Mira…
AGB stars, the precursors of Planetary Nebulae, exhibit high rates of mass loss and eject material in the form of a slow (10-20 km/s), dusty molecular wind. The general belief that the dust component of AGB circumstellar envelopes have…
Observations of the outflows of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars continue to reveal their chemical and dynamical complexity. Spherical asymmetries, such as spirals and disks, are prevalent and thought to be caused by binary interaction…
Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) stars are relatively short lived (less than a few Myr), yet their cool effective temperatures, high luminosities, efficient mass-loss and dust production can dramatically effect the…
Binary post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars are thought to be the products of a strong but poorly-understood interaction during the AGB phase. The aim of this contribution is to update the orbital elements of a sample of galactic…
We compare theoretical dust yields for stars with mass 1 Msun < mstar < 8 Msun, and metallicities 0.001 < Z < 0.008 with observed dust production rates (DPR) by carbon- rich and oxygen-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch (C-AGB and O-AGB) stars in…
We report on the succesful search for CO (2-1) and (3-2) emission associated with OH/IR stars in the Galactic Bulge. We observed a sample of eight extremely red AGB stars with the APEX telescope and detected seven. The sources were selected…
Observation of CO emission around asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars is the primary method to determine gas mass-loss rates. While radiative transfer models have shown that molecular levels of CO can become mildly inverted, causing maser…
The evolution and lifetimes of thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars suffer from significant uncertainties. We present a detailed framework for constraining model luminosity functions of TP-AGB stars using resolved…
Massive stars in the red supergiant (RSG) phase are known to undergo strong mass loss through winds and observations indicate that a substantial part of this mass loss could be driven by localised and episodic outflows. Various mechanisms…
The stars in the Magellanic Clouds with the largest degree of obscuration are used to probe the highly uncertain physics of stars in the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of evolution. Carbon stars in particular, provide key information…
We have identified a new class of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC/LMC) using optical to infrared photometry, light curves, and optical spectroscopy. The strong dust production and…
Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) observations of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emissions from the circumstellar envelope of the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) star EP Aqr have been made with four times better spatial resolution…
The thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase plays a key role in the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars, driving mass loss that influences their final stages and contributes to galactic chemical enrichment.…
We study the population of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) by means of full evolutionary models of stars of mass 1Msun < M < 8Msun, evolved through the thermally pulsing phase. The models also account…
(abridged) Variability is a key property of stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Their pulsation period is related to the luminosity and mass-loss rate (MLR) of the star. Long-period variables (LPVs) and Mira variables are the most…
With the aim of unraveling the complexity of the morpho-kinematics of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of Mira Ceti, we review, extend and in some cases revisit ALMA millimeter observations of the emission of the SiO(5-4) and CO(3-2)…
Dust formation in the winds of hot stars is inextricably linked to the classic eruptive state of luminous blue variables (LBVs) because it requires very high mass loss rates, Mdot>10^(-2.5) Msun/year, for grains to grow and for the non-dust…
(abridged)Variability is a key property of stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Their pulsation period is related to the luminosity and mass-loss rate of the star. The long-period variables (LPVs) and Mira variables are the most…
The Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) is the terminal phase of red giant evolution with timescales of millions of years and a total mass lost from the star that is a significant fraction of the initial mass. Investigation of one of these stars,…
Convection and mass loss by stellar winds are two dynamical processes that shape asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and their evolution. Observations and earlier 3D models indicate that giant convection cells cause high-contrast surface…