Related papers: Crystallinity versus mass-loss rate in Asymptotic …
Aims. We present a diagnostic tool to determine the abundance of the crystalline silicate forsterite in AGB stars surrounded by a thick shell of silicate dust. Using six infrared spectra of high mass-loss oxygen rich AGB stars we obtain the…
The heavy mass loss observed in evolved asymptotic giant branch stars is usually attributed to a two-step process: atmospheric levitation by pulsation-induced shock waves, followed by radiative acceleration of newly formed dust grains.…
We investigate the occurrence of crystalline silicates in oxygen-rich evolved stars across a range of metallicities and mass-loss rates. It has been suggested that the crystalline silicate feature strength increases with increasing…
The mass-loss rates and dust-to-gas ratios of obscured Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are investigated for samples with different initial metallicities: in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC & LMC) and in the Milky Way. The…
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are significant contributors to the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. It is therefore essential to constrain the AGB contribution to the dust budget in galaxies. Recent…
Since their discovery, cosmic crystalline silicates have presented several challenges to understanding dust formation and evolution. The mid-infrared spectrum of IRAS 17495$-$2534, a highly obscured oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB)…
For decades ever since the early detection in the 1990s of the emission spectral features of crystalline silicates in oxygen-rich evolved stars, there is a long-standing debate on whether the crystallinity of the silicate dust correlates…
Amorphous silicate dust is a major component in the interstellar and circumstellar dust formed in the outflow of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Although iron depletion is observed in the interstellar medium (ISM), the exact form and…
We present asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models of metallicity $Z=10^{-4}$ and $Z=3\times 10^{-4}$, with the aim of understanding how the gas enrichment and the dust production change in very metal-poor environments and to assess the…
We investigate infrared properties of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in our Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds using various infrared observational data and theoretical models. We use catalogs for the sample of 4996 AGB stars in our…
We model multi-wavelength broadband UBVIJHKs and Spitzer IRAC and MIPS photometry and IRS spectra from the SAGE and SAGE-Spec observing programs of two oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (O-rich AGB) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud…
Infrared spectra of a number of evolved O-rich stars have been obtained with the Short- and Long- Wavelength spectrometers on board the Infrared Space Observatory. The very broad wavelength coverage (2.4-197 micron) obtained by combining…
We have studied the dust along the line-of-sight towards the Galactic Center using Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) data obtained with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). We focussed on the wavelength region from 8-13 micron which is…
We present dust yields for asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and super--asymptotic giant branch (SAGB) stars of solar metallicity. Stars with initial mass $1.5~M_{\odot} \leq M_{\rm ini} \leq 3~M_{\odot}$ reach the carbon star stage during the…
The study of post asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars is a valuable tool to study still poorly known aspects of the evolution of the stars through the AGB. This is due to the accurate determination of their surface chemical composition…
The formation of silicates in circumstellar envelopes of stars evolving through the AGB is still debated given the uncertainties affecting stellar evolution modelling, the description of the dust formation process, and the capability of…
As part of a reanalysis of Galactic Asymptotic Giant Branch stars (hereafter AGB stars) at infrared wavelengths, we discuss here two samples (the first of carbon-rich stars, the second of S stars) for which photometry in the near- and…
It is generally acknowledged that the mass loss of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars undergoes variations on different time scales. We constructed models for the dust envelopes for a sample of AGB stars to assess whether mass-loss…
We study the Galactic distribution of ~10,000 Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars selected by IRAS colors and variability index. The distance to each star is estimated by assuming a narrow luminosity function and a model-derived bolometric…
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…