The connection between mass loss and nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This paper explores how mass loss and nucleosynthesis are interconnected in AGB stars, highlighting how surface enrichment influences stellar winds and the enrichment of interstellar space.

Contribution

It provides a detailed discussion on the feedback loop between nucleosynthesis, surface composition changes, and mass-loss processes in AGB stars.

Findings

Mass loss peaks during dredge-up episodes.

Surface composition changes impact dust formation and wind driving.

Mass loss truncates AGB evolution, affecting chemical enrichment of space.

Abstract

I discuss the relationship between mass loss and nucleosynthesis on the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB). Because of thermal pulses and possibly other mixing processes, products of nucleosynthesis can be brought to the surface of AGB stars, increasingly so as the star becomes more luminous, cooler, and unstable against pulsation of its tenuous mantle. As a result, mass loss is at its most extreme when dredge-up is too. As the high rate of mass loss truncates AGB evolution, it determines the enrichment of interstellar space with the AGB nucleosynthesis products. The changing composition of the stellar atmosphere also affects the mass-loss process, most obviously in the formation of dust grains - which play an important role in driving the wind of AGB stars.