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Promotionskolloquium |
Manali Jeste
| SCHEDULED |
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are low- to intermediate-mass stars
at the end of their life. At this stage of the stellar evolution, these
objects shed large amounts of matter in the form of gas and dust,
forming a circumstellar envelope around them and enriching the
interstellar medium. In this talk, I will present my thesis work where
we probe these envelopes using carbon-bearing species, the C atom, and
various molecules, with observations from different single-dish
telescopes. We use the rotational lines of the HCN molecule, arising
from its ground and vibrationally excited states, to study the inner and
hotter parts of the envelope, whereas fine-structure lines of atomic and
ionised carbon (C 0 and C + ) are used to constrain their distribution
in the envelope of the archetypal star, IRC +10216. Furthermore, we
focus on AGB stars as a population and analyse 445 stars as part of the
Nearby Evolved Stars Survey (NESS) collaboration. We observed
transitions of the CO molecule from multiple rotational states to derive
their physical parameters along with mass-loss rates. I will explore the
statistical distributions of the inferred stellar parameters and
demonstrate how the statistical analysis of a stellar population
confirms and extends our understanding of its contribution to the cosmic
cycle of matter.