Evolution of solar and intermediate-mass stars

Abstract

A brief discussion of the physics and numerical techniques for stellar evolution of solar and intermediate-mass stars is followed by a detailed description of the evolution of a star from the main sequence through the red giant branch, He-core burning, and on to the thermal-pulse AGB evolution. He-shell flashes and the associated mixing as well as the nucleosynthesis are discussed, including the s process. Post-AGB evolution including post-AGB He-shell flashes are presented. Variations of the evolution as a function of mass, the initial–final mass relation, and lifetimes are summarized. Peculiarities of intermediate-mass AGB stars, hot-bottom burning, the super-AGB stars, as well as low-mass stellar evolution through the He-core flash are described in detail. The evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars is presented. The final chapter covers some aspects of the dynamical star that are not well described in the spherically symmetric framework of stellar evolution.