Related papers: On the evolutionary connection between AGB stars a…

One of the puzzling findings in the study of the chemical evolution of (post-)AGB stars is why very similar stars (in terms of metallicity, spectral type, infrared properties, etc...) show a very different photospheric composition. We aim…

The prevailing evidence suggests that most large-amplitude AGB variables follow the period luminosity (PL) relation that has been established for Miras in the LMC and galactic globular clusters. Hipparcos observations indicate that most…

Carbon stars are known to exhibit systematically redder near-infrared colours with respect to M-type stars. In the near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams provided by the 2MASS and DENIS surveys, the LMC C-type stars draw a striking red…

This study calls attention to the importance of properly coupling the molecular opacities to the actual surface abundances of TP-AGB stars that experience the third dredge-up and/or hot-bottom burning, i.e. with surface abundances of carbon…

The observational data guiding the theoretical chemical evolutionary models of AGB stars come mainly from the analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic s-process enriched objects. The first are the stars of the M-MS-S-SC-C star sequence which is…

We numerically investigate abundance properties of the Galactic globular clusters (GCs) by adopting a new ``external pollution'' scenario. In this framework, GCs are assumed to originate in forming low-mass dwarfs embedded in dark matter…

We present O, Na, and Fe abundances, as well as radial velocities, for 113 red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the globular cluster M13. The abundances and velocities are based on spectra obtained with the…

The carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars constitutes an important index of evolutionary and environment/metallicity factor. We develop a method for mass C/O classification of AGBs in photometric surveys…

We present a new catalog of 11,209 O-rich AGB stars and 7172 C-rich AGB stars in our Galaxy identifying more AGB stars in the bulge component and considering more visual carbon stars. For each object, we cross-identify the IRAS, AKARI, MSX,…

[Abbreviated] We have investigated the color-magnitude diagram of Omega Centauri and find that the blue main sequence (bMS) can be reproduced only by models that have a of helium abundance in the range Y=0.35-$0.40. To explain the faint…

Post-AGB stars are key objects for the study of the dramatic morphological changes of low- to intermediate-mass stars on their evolution from the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) towards the Planetary Nebula stage. There is growing evidences…

Luminous Galactic OH/IR stars have been identified as massive (>4-5 M_s) AGB stars experiencing HBB and Li production. Their Rb abundances and [Rb/Zr] ratios derived from hydrostatic model atmospheres, are significantly higher than…

Encoded in the time- and wavelength dependent properties of pulsating AGB stars are the underlying fundamental parameters of mass, composition and evolutionary state. However, the standard technique of placing stars on a HR diagram, even…

The evolution of central stars of planetary nebulae can proceed in several distinct ways, either leading to H-deficiency or to H-normal surface composition. Several new simulations of the evolution channels that lead to H-deficiency are now…

Marigo (2002) has highlighted the crucial importance of molecular opacities in modelling the evolution of AGB stars at varying surface C/O ratio. In particular, it has been shown the large inadequacy of solar-scaled opacities when applied…

Despite of numerous efforts, the stage from Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) to Planetary Nebulae (PN) is a poorly understood phase of stellar evolution. We have therefore carried out interferometric (VLA) observations of a sample of hot…

The evolution of galaxies is driven by the birth and death of stars. AGB stars are at the end points of their evolution and therefore their luminosities directly reflect their birth mass; this enables us to reconstruct the star formation…

(Abridged) We investigate the properties of galaxies between the blue and the red sequence (i.e., the transition region) by combining UV and NIR imaging to HI line observations for a volume-limited sample of nearby galaxies. We confirm the…

We carefully analyze how the abundance of Nitrogen over Oxygen evolves when dependent on metallicity stellar yields with a primary component of N proceeding from AGBs stars are used. We show the results obtained with a chemical evolution…

We report an unbiased radio line survey towards the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars at the frequency range from 20 to 25 GHz, aiming to obtain a more complete unbiased picture of the chemical evolution in the final stages of…