Related papers: Modeling the evolution of Sakurai's object
We study the late evolution of solar metallicity stars in the transition region between white dwarf formation and core collapse. This includes the super-asymptotic giant branch (super-AGB, SAGB) stars, which have massive enough cores to…
The main component of the s process is produced by low mass stars (between 1.5 and 3 Mo), when they climb for the second time the red giant branch and experience a series of He shell flashes called thermal pulses. During the relatively long…
Most, if not all, stars in the field are born in binary configurations or higher multiplicity systems. In dense stellar environment such as the Galactic Center (GC), many stars are expected to be in binary configurations as well. These…
One of the strongest absorption lines observed in far-ultraviolet FUSE spectra of many PG1159 stars remained unidentified up to now. We show that this line, located at 973.3A, stems from NeVII. We also present new optical high-resolution…
Massive stars can develop into tepid supergiants at several stages of their post main-sequence evolution, prior to core He-burning, on a blue loop, or close to the final supernova explosion. We discuss observational constraints on models of…
The structure and evolution of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) is reviewed. CSPNe represent the rapid transitional stage between the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and the white-dwarf domain. It is shown that the whole evolution…
The hydrogen-deficiency in extremely hot post-AGB stars of spectral class PG1159 is probably caused by a (very) late helium-shell flash or a AGB final thermal pulse that consumes the hydrogen envelope, exposing the usually-hidden intershell…
The s-enhanced and very metal-poor star CS 30322-023 shows a puzzling abundance pattern of the neutron-capture elements, i.e. several neutron-capture elements such as Ba, Pb etc. show enhancement, but other neutron-capture elements such as…
The central star V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's Nova) of the planetary nebula PN G010.4+04.4 underwent in 1995-1996 the rare event of a very late helium flash. It is only one of two such events during the era of modern astronomy (the second event was…
Some He-rich hot subdwarf stars (He-sdOBs) present high abundances of trans-iron elements, such as Sr, Y, Zr and Pb. Diffusion processes are important in hot subdwarf stars, and it is thought that the high abundances of heavy elements in…
This paper continues our study of the behaviour of near infrared helium recombination lines in planetary nebula. We find that the 1.7007um 4^3D-3^3P HeI line is a good measure of the HeI recombination rate, since it varies smoothly with the…
HuBi 1 has been proposed to be member of the rare class of born-again planetary nebulae (PNe), i.e., its central star experienced a very late thermal pulse and ejected highly-processed material at high speeds inside the old hydrogen-rich…
We report the first spectroscopic identification of massive Galactic asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars at the beginning of the thermal pulse (TP) phase. These stars are the most Li-rich massive AGBs found to date, super Li-rich AGBs with…
We have collected an heterogeneous sample of galaxies at redshifts 0.001<z<3.35 with the aim of exploring the evolution of the physical parameters and of the element abundances calculated by modelling the observed spectra. The evolution…
We have investigated the role of the convective overshooting on the production of s-nuclei during core He-burning phase in stellar models with different initial mass and metallicity ($15 \leq M_{ZAMS}/M_{\odot} \leq 25$; $10^{-4} \leq Z…
The treatment of convective boundaries during core helium burning is a fundamental problem in stellar evolution calculations. In Paper~I we showed that new asteroseismic observations of these stars imply they have either very large…
Pulsating white dwarfs provide constraints to the evolution of progenitor stars. We revise He-burning stellar models, with particular attention to core convection and to its connection with the nuclear reactions powering energy generation…
The evolution on the AGB and beyond is reviewed with respect to the origin of Wolf-Rayet central stars. We focus on thermal pulses due to their particular importance for the evolution of hydrogen deficient stars. It is shown that overshoot…
The uncertainties which still plague our understanding of the evolution of the light nuclides D, 3He and 4He in the Galaxy are described. Measurements of the local abundance of deuterium range over a factor of 3. The observed dispersion can…
In the Master's thesis of the author, we investigate certain aspects of gravitational physics that emerge from stochastic toy models of holographic gauge theories. We begin by reviewing field theory thermodynamics, black hole thermodynamics…