Post-asymptotic giant branch stars (post-AGB) in binary systems, with typical orbital periods between $\sim\!100$ to $\sim$1 000 days, result from a poorly understood interaction that terminates their precursory AGB phase. The majority of these binaries display a photospheric anomaly called ‘chemical depletion’, thought to arise from an interaction between the circumbinary disc and the post-AGB star, leading to the reaccretion of pure gas onto the star, devoid of refractory elements due to dust formation. In this paper, we focus on a subset of chemically peculiar binary post-AGBs in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds (MCs). Our detailed stellar parameter and chemical abundance analysis utilising high-resolution optical spectra from VLT+UVES revealed that our targets span a $T_{\rm eff}$ of 4 900–7 250 K and [Fe/H] of −0.5 - −1.57 dex. Interestingly, these targets exhibit a carbon ([C/Fe] ranging from 0.5 - 1.0 dex, dependant on metallicity) and s-process enrichment ($\textrm{[s/Fe]}\,\geq\!1$dex) contrary to the commonly observed chemical depletion pattern. Using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting and period–luminosity–colour (PLC) relation methods, we determine the luminosity of the targets (2 700–8 300 $\rm L_{\odot}$), which enables confirmation of their evolutionary phase and estimation of initial masses (as a function of metallicity) (1–2.5 $\textrm{M}_{\odot}$). In conjunction with predictions from dedicated ATON stellar evolutionary models, our results indicate a predominant intrinsic enrichment of carbon and s-process elements in our binary post-AGB targets. We qualitatively rule out extrinsic enrichment and inherited s-process enrichment from the host galaxy as plausible explanations for the observed overabundances. Our chemically peculiar subset of intrinsic carbon and s-process enriched binary post-AGBs also hints at potential variation in the efficiency of chemical depletion between stars with C-rich and O-rich circumbinary disc chemistries. However, critical observational studies of circumbinary disc chemistry, along with specific condensation temperature estimates in C-rich environments, are necessary to address gaps in our current understanding of disc-binary interactions inducing chemical depletion in binary post-AGB systems.

NGC 7293, the Helix nebula, represents one of the rare instances in which theoretical predictions of stellar evolution can be accurately tested against observations since the precise parallax distance and the velocity and proper motion of the star are well known. We present numerical simulations of the formation of the Helix PN that are fully constrained by the progenitor stellar mass, stellar evolution history, and star-interstellar medium (ISM) interaction. In the simulations, multiple bow-shock structures are formed by fragmentation of the shock front where the direct interaction of the stellar wind with the ISM takes place.

The synthesis of dust grains mostly takes place in the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. What are the precursor seeds of condensation nuclei and how do these particles evolve toward the micrometer sized grains that populate the interstellar medium? These are key questions of the NANOCOSMOS project. In this study, we carried out an observational study to constrain what the main gas-phase precursors of dust in C-rich AGB stars are.

The chemical enrichment of the Universe is considerably affected by the contribution of cool evolved stars. We studied the O-rich star R Peg and the C-rich star V Oph, using respectively the VLTI/GRAVITY and VLTI/MIDI instruments. We interpret the data using grids of 1-D and 3-D dynamic model atmospheres.

We present studies of Long Period Variables (LPVs) in our Galaxy based on astrometric VLBI observations of H2O and SiO masers. The Galactic Miras and OH/IR stars are our main targets. For Miras, we present the distribution of the LPVs on the MK – log P plane. Galactic Miras show consistency with PLR in the LMC except for some fainter sources. Parallaxes of the LPVs determined from VLBI and Gaia are compared. There seems to be some offset.

We have been intensely monitoring photometric variability in proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) over the past 25 years and radial velocity variability over the past ten years. Pulsational variability has been obvious, in both the light and velocity, although the resulting curves are complex, with multiple periods and varying amplitudes. Observed periods range from 25 to 160 days, and the periods and amplitudes reveal evolutionary trends. We will present our observational results to date for approximately 30 PPNe, and discuss these results, including the search for period changes that might help constrain post-AGB evolutionary timescales.

The massive outflows of gas and dust which characterize giant stars on the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), build cool circumstellar envelopes readily observed at infrared (IR) and sub-millimeter wavelengths. The observations will give the amount of matter lost by the star, the wind velocity (in the case of spectral line observations), and, when the spatial resolution is sufficient, the wind evolution over time. To gain detailed insight into the mass-loss process, we study the nearby (closer than 1 kpc) stars. Through these investigations we aim to determine the best constrained wind properties available. By combining this with theoretical results, mass-loss estimates for more distant sources can also be significantly improved. ALMA has opened up new opportunities to study the winds of AGB stars. The DEATHSTAR project (www.astro.uu.se/deathstar) has mapped the circumstellar CO emission from so far ∼50 nearby M- and C-type AGB stars. The data will initially be used to give a definitive mass-loss prescription for the sample sources, but the large-bandwidth observations opens for many different legacy projects. The current status and results are presented.

The stellar life cycle is dominated by phases such as the hydrogen-burning stage and the remnant white dwarf cooling phase. However, between these two stages, stars dramatically transform themselves by losing the bulk of their mass. Planetary nebulae (PNe) provide a powerful clue to the processes involved in this transformation, but they are very complex. Over the past 15 years, a new wave of imaging and spectroscopy programs have uncovered the remnants of PNe, white dwarfs, in a wide range of well-measured environments. With this we can map the masses and temperatures of the stellar remnants to the properties of their progenitors. This work has now led to the first uniform mapping of the initial-final mass relation from 1.5 to 7 M⊙. The resulting relation is a fundamental input to our understanding of stellar evolution for low and intermediate-mass stars that produce PNe and has a wide range of applications.

The formation process(es) of fullerenes in space is still uncertain and several mechanisms have been proposed in the literature. In particular, the most accepted idea to explain the simultaneous presence of fullerenes and PAH-like emission in the H-rich circumstellar envelopes of PNe is that these molecular species may be formed from the photochemical processing of a carbonaceous compound with a mixture of aromatic and aliphatic structures, which should be a major constituent of their circumstellar envelopes. Here we present seeing-limited narrow-band mid-IR GTC/CanariCam images of the fullerene-containing PN IC 418. The narrow-band images cover the 9−13, 11.3, and 17.4 μm emission features (and their adjacent continua) in this extended PN. We study the relative sub-arcsecond spatial distribution of the nebula in these filters with the intention of getting some clues about the formation process of fullerenes in H-rich circumstellar environments.

Stellar yields are an essential tool for studies of chemical evolution. For low and intermediate-mass stars (0.8 up to 8-10M⊙) the richest nucleosynthesis occurs when the stars are on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) of stellar evolution. We discuss the main nucleosynthesis outcomes, along with the uncertainties that affect the theoretical calculations. The uncertainties in the physics can be improved by comparing theoretical models to observations, including chemically peculiar metal-poor stars, along with AGB stars and their progeny.

Extra-galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) permit the study of dust and molecules in metallicity environments other than the Galaxy. Their known distances lower the number of free parameters in the observations vs. models comparison, providing strong constraints on the gas-phase and solid-state astrochemistry models. Observations of PNe in the Galaxy and other Local Group galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds (MC) provide evidence that metallicity affects the production of dust as well as the formation of complex organic molecules and inorganic solid-state compounds in their circumstellar envelopes. In particular, the lower metallicity MC environments seem to be less favorable to dust production and the frequency of carbonaceous dust features and complex fullerene molecules is generally higher with decreasing metallicity. Here, I present an observational review of the dust and molecular content in extra-galactic PNe as compared to their higher metallicity Galactic counterparts. A special attention is given to the level of dust processing and the formation of complex organic molecules (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fullerenes, and graphene precursors) depending on metallicity.

This review summarises current observations of masers around evolved stars and models for their location and behaviour, followed by some of the many highlights from the past 5 years. Some of these have been the fruition of long-term monitoring, a vital aspect of study of stars which are both periodically variable and prone to rapid outbursts or transition to a new evolutionary stage. Interferometric imaging of masers provide the highest-resolution probes of the stellar wind, but their exponential amplification and variability means that multiple observations are needed to investigate questions such as what drives the wind from the stellar surface; why does it accelerate slowly over many tens of stellar radii; what causes maser variability. VLBI parallaxes have improved our understanding of individual objects and of Galactic populations. Masers from wide range of binary and post-AGB objects are accessible to sensitive modern instruments, including energetic symbiotic systems. Masers have been detected up to THz frequencies with Herschel and ALMA's ability to resolve a wide range of maser and thermal lines will provide accurate constraints on physical conditions including during dust formation.

The Tübingen NLTE Model-Atmosphere Package (TMAP) calculates fully metal-line blanketed white dwarf model atmospheres and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at a high level of sophistication. Such SEDs are easily accessible via the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO) service TheoSSA. We discuss applications of TMAP models to (pre) white dwarfs during the hottest stages of their stellar evolution, e.g. in the parameter range of novae and supersoft sources.

I review our current understanding of the evolution of stars which experience carbon burning under conditions of partial electron degeneracy and ultimately become thermally pulsing “super” asymptotic giant branch (SAGB) stars with electron-degenerate cores composed primarily of oxygen and neon. The range in stellar mass over which this occurs is very narrow and the interior evolutionary characteristics vary rapidly over this range. Consequently, while those stars with larger masses (~11 M⊙) are likely to undergo electron-capture accretion induced collapse, those models with smaller masses (8.5 ≲ M/M⊙ ≲ 10.5) will presumably form massive (M ≳ 1.1 M⊙) white dwarfs. The final outcome depends sensitively on the adopted mass-loss rates, the chemical composition of the massive envelopes, and on the adopted prescription for convective mixing.

The helium produced by AGB and super-AGB stars is a key quantity to understand whether these objects may have been the main polluters of the interstellar medium within globular clusters, and originate a second generation of stars with a chemistry showing the imprinting of their ejecta. Helium is the most important element for this topic, as any difference in the original helium between the two populations would determine clearly distinguishable features both in the morphology of the Horizontal Branches and in the Main Sequences. We present the helium yields from massive AGB stars, and show that the results are rather robust, being approximately independent of the various uncertainties that affect the description of the evolution of these stars. The implications for the self-enrichment scenario are discussed and commented.

We examine the effects of thermohaline mixing on the composition of the envelopes of low-metallicity asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We have evolved models of 1, 1.5 and 2M⊙ and of metallicity Z = 10−4 from the pre-main sequence to the end of the thermal pulsing asymptotic giant branch with thermohaline mixing applied throughout the simulations. We find that the small amount of 3He that remains after the first giant branch is enough to drive thermohaline mixing on the AGB and that the mixing is most efficient in the early thermal pulses, with the efficiency dropping from pulse to pulse. We note a surprising increase in the 7Li abundance, with log10ϵ(7Li) reaching values of over 2.5 in the 1.5M⊙ model. It is thus possible to get stars which are both C- and Li-rich at the same time. We compare our models to measurements of carbon and lithium in carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars which have not yet reached the giant branch. These models can simultaneously reproduced the observed C and Li abundances of carbon-enhanced metal-poor turn-off stars that are Li-rich.

The spreads in chemical abundances inferred by recent precision observations suggest that some or possibly all globular clusters can no longer be considered as simple stellar populations. The most striking case is ω Cen in the sense that its bluest main-sequence, despite its high metallicity, demands an extreme helium abundance of Y ≈ 0.4. I focus on this issue of “the extreme helium population problem” in this review.

In this paper, we use a parametric model of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, in which the 13C neutron source is activated in radiative conditions during the interpulse periods, to calculate the nucleosynthesis in 29 very metal-poor double-enhanced stars (i.e. s+r stars) and 26 barium stars (i.e. Ba stars), respectively. Through a statistical analyzing on the corresponding parameters obtained for the above stars, we get the possible conditions which the s+r stars formed in. We find that the value of neutron exposures of most s+r stars is greater than that of Ba stars. In the very metal-poor stars, the Ba stars stars should belong to the binary systems with large initial orbital separation, by comparing the s-process-component coefficient (Cs) values with those of s+r stars. For s+r stars, there is strong correlation between their Cs and Cr (r-process-component coefficient) but no correlation for Ba stars. This strongly confirms the possibility that the s+r stars should form through the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) or type 1.5 supernova mechanism.

We have started a VLBI monitoring program for Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars at 22 and 43 GHz as part of a project of the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) for precisely obtaining the period-luminosity (PL) relation of Galactic Mira variables. Using accurate distances measured with VERA, we reveal PL relation in the Galaxy based on the absolute magnitudes of the sources. We selected the sources for VLBI monitoring so that they have a good coverage of various pulsation periods. Photometry in the infrared J, H, and K bands for over 600 AGB stars has also started since 2003 with the 1m telescope of Kagoshima University to obtain the pulsation periods and magnitudes. Current analysis of the phase referencing VLBI observations of S Crt shows that the parallax of 2.3±0.2 milliarcsec (mas) corresponds to a distance of 435+41−35 pc. From the infrared monitoring data, pulsation periods and magnitudes in K band for 248 sources were obtained.

I review the current status of stellar population modelling, with particular emphasis on the treatment of the Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch stellar phase. I discuss how much the physical properties of galaxies that are derived applying these models to real data, depend on the adopted model.