scholarly journals Red Giant Stars: Comparison of Observations and Theory

1984 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 195-206
Author(s):  
Jeremy Mould

Recent observations in both the field and the clusters of the Magellanic Clouds suggest a higher mass loss rate during or at the end of the asymptotic giant branch phase than previously supposed. Recent theoretical investigations offer an explanation for the frequency of carbon stars in the Clouds, but a rich parameter space remains to be explored, before detailed agreement can be expected.

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 113-115
Author(s):  
T. Tanabe ◽  
F. Kamijo

High dispersion spectrograms of α Ori are obtained. Several strong absorption lines which have circumstellar components are measured. Assuming the plane-parallel envelope and thermal equilibrium, the mass loss rate is estimated as 1x10-6 Mʘ/yr.To obtain the mass loss rate of red giant stars is very important in connection with the study of the stellar evolution. Several authors have observed circumstellar lines and obtained mass loss rate using precise theories of radiation transfer. However, accuracy of the studies seems to depend not on the adopted theories but on the dispersion of spectrograms, since the structure of the circumstellar space is too complicated to be expressed by,e.g.,single expansion velocity. Because our spectrograms have higher dispersion, compared with others, our study is meaningful, though the assumed model is very simple.


1994 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 509-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Azzopardi ◽  
E. Rebeirot ◽  
B.E. Westerlund

The Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stage is the normal luminous phase of evolution of intermediate-mass stars (slightly less than 1 M ⊙ up to very roughly 3 M ⊙) and therefore the AGB stars play a noteworthy role in our understanding of the chemical evolution of galactic systems. Furthermore it is now generally accepted that the ratio of carbon (C) stars to late-type M giant stars can be used to estimate the mean metallicity of the stellar population of a system, or the change in metallicity from the inner to the outer parts of a galaxy. It is for these reasons among others that red giant stars have been searched for in nearby local group galaxies, principally in our nearest neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds and the dwarf spheroidal galaxies. This paper will be particularly devoted to the slitless spectroscopy surveys for carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (1) ◽  
pp. 612-619
Author(s):  
Ahlam Hegazi ◽  
Ealeal Bear ◽  
Noam Soker

ABSTRACT We use the stellar evolution code MESA–binary and follow the evolution of three exoplanets and two brown dwarfs (BDs) to determine their potential role in the future evolution of their parent star on the red giant branch (RGB) and on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). We limit this study to exoplanets and BDs with orbits that have semimajor axis of $1 {~\rm au}\lesssim a_0 \lesssim 20 {~\rm au}$, a high eccentricity, $e_0 \gtrsim 0.25$, and having a parent star of mass M*,0 ≥ 1 M⊙. We find that the star HIP 75 458 will engulf its planet HIP 75 458b during its RGB phase. The planet will remove the envelope and terminate the RGB evolution, leaving a bare helium core of mass 0.4 M⊙ that will evolve to form a helium white dwarf. Only in one system out of five, the planet beta Pic c will enter the envelope of its parent star during the AGB phase. For that to occur, we have to reduce the wind mass-loss rate by a factor of about four from its commonly used value. This strengthens an early conclusion, which was based on exoplanets with circular orbits, which states that to have a non-negligible fraction of AGB stars that engulf planets we should consider lower wind mass-loss rates of isolated AGB stars (before they are spun-up by a companion). Such an engulfed planet might lead to the shaping of the AGB mass-loss geometry to form an elliptical planetary nebula.


2018 ◽  
Vol 617 ◽  
pp. A132 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Danilovich ◽  
S. Ramstedt ◽  
D. Gobrecht ◽  
L. Decin ◽  
E. De Beck ◽  
...  

Context. Sulphur has long been known to form different molecules depending on the chemical composition of its environment. More recently, the sulphur-bearing molecules SO and H2S have been shown to behave differently in oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) circumstellar envelopes of different densities. Aims. By surveying a diverse sample of AGB stars for CS and SiS emission, we aim to determine in which environments these sulphur-bearing molecules most readily occur. We include sources with a range of mass-loss rates and carbon-rich, oxygen-rich, and mixed S-type chemistries. Where these molecules are detected, we aim to determine their CS and SiS abundances. Methods. We surveyed 20 AGB stars of different chemical types using the APEX telescope, and combined this with an IRAM 30 m and APEX survey of CS and SiS emission towards over 30 S-type stars. For those stars with detections, we performed radiative transfer modelling to determine abundances and abundance distributions. Results. We detect CS towards all the surveyed carbon stars, some S-type stars, and the highest mass-loss rate oxygen-rich stars, (Ṁ ≥ 5 × 10−6 M⊙ yr−1). SiS is detected towards the highest mass-loss rate sources of all chemical types (Ṁ ≥ 8 × 10−7 M⊙ yr−1). We find CS peak fractional abundances ranging from ~4 × 10−7 to ~2 × 10−5 for the carbon stars, from ~3 × 10−8 to ~1 × 10−7 for the oxygen-rich stars, and from ~1 × 10−7 to ~8 × 10−6 for the S-type stars. We find SiS peak fractional abundances ranging from ~9 × 10−6 to ~2 × 10−5 for the carbon stars, from ~5 × 10−7 to ~2 × 10−6 for the oxygen-rich stars, and from ~2 × 10−7 to ~2 × 10−6 for the S-type stars. Conclusions. Overall, we find that wind density plays an important role in determining the chemical composition of AGB circumstellar envelopes. It is seen that for oxygen-rich AGB stars both CS and SiS are detected only in the highest density circumstellar envelopes and their abundances are generally lower than for carbon-rich AGB stars by around an order of magnitude. For carbon-rich and S-type stars SiS was also only detected in the highest density circumstellar envelopes, while CS was detected consistently in all surveyed carbon stars and sporadically among the S-type stars.


Author(s):  
Jie Yu ◽  
Saskia Hekker ◽  
Timothy R Bedding ◽  
Dennis Stello ◽  
Daniel Huber ◽  
...  

Abstract Mass loss by red giants is an important process to understand the final stages of stellar evolution and the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium. Mass-loss rates are thought to be controlled by pulsation-enhanced dust-driven outflows. Here we investigate the relationships between mass loss, pulsations, and radiation, using 3213 luminous Kepler red giants and 135000 ASAS–SN semiregulars and Miras. Mass-loss rates are traced by infrared colours using 2MASS and WISE and by observed-to-model WISE fluxes, and are also estimated using dust mass-loss rates from literature assuming a typical gas-to-dust mass ratio of 400. To specify the pulsations, we extract the period and height of the highest peak in the power spectrum of oscillation. Absolute magnitudes are obtained from the 2MASS Ks band and the Gaia DR2 parallaxes. Our results follow. (i) Substantial mass loss sets in at pulsation periods above ∼60 and ∼100 days, corresponding to Asymptotic-Giant-Branch stars at the base of the period-luminosity sequences C′ and C. (ii) The mass-loss rate starts to rapidly increase in semiregulars for which the luminosity is just above the red-giant-branch tip and gradually plateaus to a level similar to that of Miras. (iii) The mass-loss rates in Miras do not depend on luminosity, consistent with pulsation-enhanced dust-driven winds. (iv) The accumulated mass loss on the Red Giant Branch consistent with asteroseismic predictions reduces the masses of red-clump stars by 6.3%, less than the typical uncertainty on their asteroseismic masses. Thus mass loss is currently not a limitation of stellar age estimates for galactic archaeology studies.


1991 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 480-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Leitherer ◽  
Norbert Langer

The structure and evolution of massive stars is significantly influenced by effects of chemical composition in a low-metallicity environment (as compared to the solar neighbourhood, SN), such as the Magellanic Clouds. A fundamental ingredient in evolutionary models is the stellar mass-loss rate M. Lower metal content decreases the mass-loss rates derived theoretically, which in turn affects the stellar evolution models. On the other hand, different evolutionary models predict different stellar parameters (especially L), which again influence M so that an iterative procedure is required to achieve self-consistency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 622 ◽  
pp. A123 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. da Silva Santos ◽  
J. Ramos-Medina ◽  
C. Sánchez Contreras ◽  
P. García-Lario

Context. This is the second paper of a series making use of Herschel/PACS spectroscopy of evolved stars in the THROES catalogue to study the inner warm regions of their circumstellar envelopes (CSEs). Aims. We analyse the CO emission spectra, including a large number of high-J CO lines (from J = 14–13 to J = 45–44, ν = 0), as a proxy for the warm molecular gas in the CSEs of a sample of bright carbon-rich stars spanning different evolutionary stages from the asymptotic giant branch to the young planetary nebulae phase. Methods. We used the rotational diagram (RD) technique to derive rotational temperatures (Trot) and masses (MH2) of the envelope layers where the CO transitions observed with PACS arise. Additionally, we obtained a first order estimate of the mass-loss rates and assessed the impact of the opacity correction for a range of envelope characteristic radii. We used multi-epoch spectra for the well-studied C-rich envelope IRC+10216 to investigate the impact of CO flux variability on the values of Trot and MH2. Results. The sensitivity of PACS allowed for the study of higher rotational numbers than before indicating the presence of a significant amount of warmer gas (∼200 − 900 K) that is not traceable with lower J CO observations at submillimetre/millimetre wavelengths. The masses are in the range MH2 ∼ 10−2 − 10−5 M⊙, anticorrelated with temperature. For some strong CO emitters we infer a double temperature (warm T¯rot ∼ 400 K and hot T¯rot ∼ 820 K) component. From the analysis of IRC+10216, we corroborate that the effect of line variability is perceptible on the Trot of the hot component only, and certainly insignificant on MH2 and, hence, the mass-loss rate. The agreement between our mass-loss rates and the literature across the sample is good. Therefore, the parameters derived from the RD are robust even when strong line flux variability occurs, and the major source of uncertainty in the estimate of the mass-loss rate is the size of the CO-emitting volume.


1981 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 345-346
Author(s):  
A. Harpaz ◽  
A. Kovetz

The evolution of a 1.2Mʘ star along the asymptotic branch with continuous mass loss is presented, showing that this mass loss leads to the formation of a PN with a typical central star in its center.A former investigation (Harpaz and Kovetz, 1980) has shown that mechanisms for PN creation based on sudden violent processes are not likely to work in the envelope of a red giant star. On the other hand, significant mass loss from red giants was observed as a general phenomenon.We have followed the evolution of a 1.2Mʘ star along the asymptotic branch, including in the evolutionary calculations a mass loss according to Reimers’ empirical formula. It was found that towards the end of this stage, the mass loss rate was about 2.7xl0-6Mʘ/y, which is consistent with the formation of a typical PN within 30,000 years. When the mass content of the hydrogen rich envelope dropped to 1.5x10-3Mʘ, the star began to contract rapidly, forming a typical central star of 0.6Mʘ


2020 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
pp. A173 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Krtička ◽  
J. Kubát ◽  
I. Krtičková

Context. Fast line-driven stellar winds play an important role in the evolution of planetary nebulae, even though they are relatively weak. Aims. We provide global (unified) hot star wind models of central stars of planetary nebulae. The models predict wind structure including the mass-loss rates, terminal velocities, and emergent fluxes from basic stellar parameters. Methods. We applied our wind code for parameters corresponding to evolutionary stages between the asymptotic giant branch and white dwarf phases for a star with a final mass of 0.569 M⊙. We study the influence of metallicity and wind inhomogeneities (clumping) on the wind properties. Results. Line-driven winds appear very early after the star leaves the asymptotic giant branch (at the latest for Teff ≈ 10 kK) and fade away at the white dwarf cooling track (below Teff = 105 kK). Their mass-loss rate mostly scales with the stellar luminosity and, consequently, the mass-loss rate only varies slightly during the transition from the red to the blue part of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. There are the following two exceptions to the monotonic behavior: a bistability jump at around 20 kK, where the mass-loss rate decreases by a factor of a few (during evolution) due to a change in iron ionization, and an additional maximum at about Teff = 40−50 kK. On the other hand, the terminal velocity increases from about a few hundreds of km s−1 to a few thousands of km s−1 during the transition as a result of stellar radius decrease. The wind terminal velocity also significantly increases at the bistability jump. Derived wind parameters reasonably agree with observations. The effect of clumping is stronger at the hot side of the bistability jump than at the cool side. Conclusions. Derived fits to wind parameters can be used in evolutionary models and in studies of planetary nebula formation. A predicted bistability jump in mass-loss rates can cause the appearance of an additional shell of planetary nebula.


1989 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 339-347
Author(s):  
M. Jura

AbstractThe mass loss from evolved red giants is considered. It seems that red giants on the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) are losing between 3 and 6 10-4 MΘ kpc-2 yr-1 in the solar neighborhood. If all the main sequence stars between 1 and 5 MΘ ultimately evolve into white dwarfs with masses of 0.7 MΘ the predicted mass loss rate in the solar neighborhood from these stars is 8 10-4 MΘ kpc-2 yr-1. Although there are still uncertainties, it appears that there is no strong disagreement between theory and observation. However, it could also be that we have not yet identified much of the source of the mass-loss from pre-white dwarf stars.


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