Related papers: AGB stars and the chemical evolution of galaxies
Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars play a key role in the chemical evolution of galaxies. These stars are the fundamental stellar site for the production of light elements such as C, N and F, and half of the elements heavier than Fe via…
Asymptotic giant branch stars are essential contributors to the near and mid-IR emission of intermediate age (0.1-1Gyr old) stellar populations. Detecting this light sets constraints on the star formation history in galaxies and,…
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of stellar evolution is common to most stars of low and intermediate mass. Most of the carbon and nitrogen in the Universe is produced by AGB stars. The final fate of the AGB envelopes are represented…
The Thermally-Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution has received attention only recently in galaxy evolution, but is now an important player in our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. Because it is…
The Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase is very short but its importance is seen in its nucleosynthesis. A revolution in stellar modelling has taken place in the last 20 years, inspired jointly by this rich nucleosynthesis and partly by new…
In this paper we discuss the impact of the s-process nucleosynthesis in Asymptotic Giant Branch stars on the enrichment of heavy elements. We review the main steps made on this subject in the last 40 years and discuss the importance of…
The study of the evolutionary properties of Asymptotic Giant Branch stars still presents unresolved topics. Progress in the theoretical understanding of their evolution is hampered by the difficulty to empirically explain key physical…
Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars play a fundamental role in the s-process nucleosynthesis during their thermal pulsing phase. The theoretical predictions obtained by AGB models at different masses, s-process efficiencies, dilution…
The studies focused on the Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch phase experienced by low- and intermediate-mass stars are extremely important in many astrophysical contexts. In particular, a detailed computation of their chemical…
The role of carbon stars in the build-up of chemical elements in galaxies is discussed on the basis of stellar evolution calculations and estimated stellar yields, abundance analyses of AGB stars, galactic-evolution models and abundance…
This thesis is aimed at clarifying one of the least studied phases of stellar evolution: the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Recent results obtained for Galactic globular clusters (GCs) suggest that the AGB stage may contain crucial…
The enrichment of Pb in the Galaxy is followed in the framework of a detailed model of Galactic chemical evolution that already proved adequate to reproduce the chemical enrichment of O and of the elements from Ba to Eu. The stellar yields…
The outflows of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are rich astrochemical laboratories, hosting different chemical regimes: from non-equilibrium chemistry close to the star, to dust formation further out, and finally photochemistry in the…
Galactic globular clusters (GCs) are known to host multiple stellar populations: a first generation with a chemical pattern typical of halo field stars and a second generation (SG) enriched in Na and Al and depleted in O and Mg. Both…
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…
I discuss recent new models of post-Asymptotic Giant Branch stellar evolution. These models aim to clarify the evolutionary origin and status of a variety of hydrogen-deficient post-AGB stars such as central stars of planetary nebulae of…
Planetary nebulae (PN) represent the evolutionary fate of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stellar envelopes, thus are ideally suited to study the chemical impact of AGB stars. Stellar evolution predict elemental enrichment through the AGB…
We present asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models of solar metallicity, to allow the interpretation of observations of Galactic AGB stars, whose distances should be soon available after the first release of the Gaia catalogue. We find an…
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…
Understanding the nucleosynthesis and evolution of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars is of primary importance as they are the main producers of some of the key elements in the Universe. They are the predominant sites for the slow…