Late stages of stellar evolution - Central stars of planetary nebulae

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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A Stars, B Stars, Planetary Nebulae, Stellar Evolution, Stellar Magnitude, Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars, Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Mass Distribution, Star Distribution, Stellar Envelopes, Stellar Luminosity, Stellar Mass Accretion, White Dwarf Stars

Scientific paper

The evolution of the central stars of planetary nebulae is studied by means of an observed correlation between their absolute visual magnitudes and the corresponding nebular radii. The observed evolutionary behavior is explained by post-AGB stars with typical masses near 0.6 solar mass, which burn hydrogen in a shell under quiet conditions. This implies that the formation of a nebula occurs during the quiescent hydrogen burning phase between successive thermal pulses and not when the star enters its peak luminosity during a thermal pulse. The mass distribution of the central stars turns out to be extremely sharp. The observed central star sequence can thus be interpreted as an evolutionary sequence. Moreover, the mean value of 0.58 solar mass for the central stars is indentical with that of (DA) white dwarfs (Koester et al., 1979.) Evidence is presented that envelope enrichment with processed material occurs already at lower luminosities and core-masses than hitherto assumed.

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