Planets, evolved stars, and how they might influence each other

Abstract

Over the last 20 years planetary searches have revealed a wealth of systems orbiting stars on the main sequence. Most of these low-mass stars eventually will evolve into the Giant phases before entering the planetary nebulae (PNe) stage. In the last years, the presence of planets has also been discovered around more massive evolved stars, mostly, along the Red Giant but also along the Horizontal Branch. Moreover, disks have been found around White Dwarfs presumably formed by tidally disrupted asteroids. In all, there is evidence that an evolved (ing) star might influence the survival of planets. In this review I will try to summarize such evidence but furthermore I will present the other side of the story, that is, how the presence of a planet might alter the evolution of stars and with that the PN formation. © 2012 International Astronomical Union.