Related papers: B[e] supergiants: What is their evolutionary statu…
The aim of this paper is to look at the evolution of massive stars in order to determine whether or not the progenitor of V838 Mon may be a massive star. In the first part of this paper, the evolution of massive stars around solar…
Massive stars are essential to understand a variety of branches of astronomy including galaxy and star cluster evolution, nucleosynthesis and supernovae, pulsars and black holes. It has become evident that massive star evolution is very…
I review multiwavelength observations of material seen around different types of evolved massive stars (i.e. red supergiants, yellow hypergiants, luminous blue variables, B[e] supergiants, and Wolf-Rayet stars), concentrating on diagnostics…
The formation of hot subdwarf stars is still unclear. Both single-star and binary scenarios have been proposed to explain the properties of these evolved stars situated at the extreme blue end of the horizontal branch. The observational…
As of today ten circumbinary planets orbiting solar type main sequence stars have been discovered. Nearly all of them orbit around the central binary very closely to the region of instability where it is difficult to form them in situ. It…
Blue stragglers in globular clusters are abnormally massive stars that should have evolved off the stellar main sequence long ago. There are two known processes that can create these objects: direct stellar collisions and binary evolution.…
In our current interpretation of the hierarchical structure of the universe it is well established that galaxies collide and merge with each other during their lifetime. If massive black holes (MBHs) reside in galactic centres, we expect…
We present a mini-survey of Galactic B[e] stars mainly undertaken with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). B[e] stars show morphological features with hydrogen emission lines and an infrared excess, attributed to warm circumstellar dust.…
Massive evolved stars in transition phases, such as Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), B[e] Supergiants (B[e]SGs), and Yellow Hypergiants (YHGs), are not well understood, and yet crucial steps in determining accurate stellar and galactic…
The evolutionary phase of B[e] stars is difficult to establish due to the uncertainties in their fundamental parameters. For instance, possible classifications for the Galactic B[e] star MWC 137 include pre-main-sequence and…
Massive stars evolve toward the catastrophic collapse of their innermost core, producing core-collapse supernova (SN) explosions as the end products. White dwarfs, formed through evolution of the less massive stars, also explode as…
Sub-subgiants are a new class of stars that are optically redder than normal main-sequence stars and fainter than normal subgiant stars. Sub-subgiants, and the possibly related red stragglers (which fall to the red of the giant branch),…
Be stars are rapidly rotating B main sequence stars, which show line emission due to an outflowing disc. By studying the evolution of rotating single star models, we can assess their contribution to the observed Be star populations. We…
In the past decade, a consensus has emerged regarding the nature of classical Be stars: They are very rapidly rotating main sequence B stars, which, through a still unknown, but increasingly constrained process, form an outwardly diffusing…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
We briefly review the main problems related to the computation of the evolution of intermediate-mass stars: the treatment of turbulent convection and the occurrence of blue loops during the core He-burning phase. It is shown that, in order…
The evolution of circumstellar discs is influenced by their surroundings. The relevant processes include external photoevaporation due to nearby stars, and dynamical truncations. The impact of these processes on disc populations depends on…
Be stars are thought to be fast rotating stars surrounded by an equatorial disc. The formation, structure and evolution of the disc are still not well understood. In the frame of single star models, it is expected that the surface of an…
This review covers the properties of disks around pre-main--sequence stars. It is at this time in the evolution that planets form, and it is important to understand the properties of these disks to understand planet formation. I discuss…
Regular star formation is thought to be inhibited close to the massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic center. Nevertheless, tens of young main sequence B stars have been observed in an isotropic distribution close to it. Various models…