Related papers: AGB Stars: Summary and Warning

The determination of heavy element abundances from planetary nebula (PN) spectra provides an exciting opportunity to study the nucleosynthesis occurring in the progenitor asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. We perform post-processing…

Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars play a significant role in our understanding of the origin of the elements. They contribute to the abundances of C, N, and approximately $50\%$ of the abundances of the elements heavier than iron. An…

Context: The Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase is characterised by substantial mass loss that is accompanied by the formation of dust. In extreme cases this will make the star no longer visible in the optical. For a better understanding…

The transition from Asymptotic Giant Branch star to Planetary Nebula is short-lived and mysterious. Though it lasts only a few thousand years, it is thought to be the time when the asymmetries observed in subsequent phases arise. During…

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…

Context. The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase marks the end of the evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars, which are fundamental contributors to the mass return to the interstellar medium and to the chemical evolution of…

More than half of the dust and heavy element enrichment in galaxies originates from the winds and outflows of evolved, low-to-intermediate mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). However, numerous details of the physics of…

In this introduction to the Third Congress of Vienna on AGB stars I first try to highlight why it is so hard to cope with the AGB evolutionary phase. This phase is indeed dominated by three main physical processes concerning bulk motions of…

Cool giant stars are highly dynamical objects, and complex micro-physical processes play an important role in their extended atmospheres and winds. The interpretation of observations, and in particular of high-resolution IR spectra,…

Context: Stars evolving through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase provide significant feedback to their host system, in form of both gas enriched in nuclear-burning products and dust formed in their winds, which they eject into the…

For stars between 0.8-8.0 solar masses, nucleosynthesis enters its final phase during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stage. During this evolutionary period, grain condensation occurs in the stellar atmosphere, and the star experiences…

The huge photometric databases that are being created for stars in the Magellanic Clouds and in Local Group galaxies not only allow detailed study of the star formation history of these systems, but also provide important information on…

The possibility that mass ejected during Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stellar evolution phases falls back towards the star has been suggested in applications ranging from the formation of accretion disks to the powering of late-thermal…

The efficiency of convection in stars affects many aspects of their evolution and remains one of the key-open questions in stellar modelling. In particular, the size of the mixed core in core-He-burning low-mass stars is still uncertain and…

Due to thermal pulses, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars experience periods of convective mixing that provide ideal conditions for slow neutron-capture nucleosynthesis. These processes are affected by large uncertainties and are still not…

The evolution of AGB stars is notoriously complex. The confrontation of AGB population models with observed stellar populations is a useful alternative to the detailed study of individual stars in efforts to converge towards a reliable…

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…

The majority of the inhomogeneities in the chemical composition of Globular Cluster (GC) stars appear due to primordial enrichment. The most studied model today claims that the ejecta of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars of high mass…

We summarise the evolution and nucleosynthesis in AGB and Super-AGB stars. We then examine the major sources of uncertainty, especially mass-loss.

Many nucleosynthesis and mixing processes of low-mass stars as they evolve from the Main Sequence to the thermal-pulse Asymptotic Giant Branch phase (TP-AGB) are well understood (although of course important physics components, e.g.…