The onset of the AGB wind tied to a transition between sequences in the period-luminosity diagram

Abstract

We link the onset of pulsation-enhanced, dust-driven winds from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Magellanic Clouds to the star's transition between period--luminosity sequences (from B to C'). This transition occurs at ~60 days for solar-mass stars, which represent the bulk of the AGB population: this is the same period at which copious dust production starts in solar-neighbourhood AGB stars. It is contemporaneous with the onset of long-secondary period (LSP) variability on sequence D. The combined amplitude of the first-overtone (B+C') and fundamental (C) modes and (perhaps) long-secondary period (D; LSP) variability appears to drive a sudden increase in mass-loss rate to a stable plateau, previously identified to be a few x 10^-7 solar masses per year. We cite this as evidence that pulsations are necessary to initiate mass loss from AGB stars and that these pulsations are significant in controlling stars' mass-loss rates. We also show evidence that LSPs may evolve from long to short periods as the star evolves, counter to the other period-luminosity sequences.

6 pages, accepted MNRAS

References in corpus (15)

• The Dawes Review 2: Nucleosynthesis and stellar yields of low and intermediate-mass single stars
• The wind speeds, dust content, and mass-loss rates of evolved AGB and RSG stars at varying metallicity
• Fundamental parameters and infrared excesses of Tycho-Gaia stars
• Mass loss on the red giant branch: the value and metallicity dependence of Reimers' η in globular clusters
• The pulsation modes, masses and evolution of luminous red giants
• A new interpretation of the period-luminosity sequences of long-period variables
• Exploring wind-driving dust species in cool luminous giants III. Wind models for M-type AGB stars: dynamic and photometric properties
• Ellipsoidal Variability and Long Secondary Periods in MACHO Red Giant Stars
• An Infrared Census of DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS). IV. Discovery of High-Redshift AGB Analogs
• Spitzer Space Telescope evidence in NGC 6791: no super-mass-loss at super-solar metallicity to explain helium white dwarfs?
• The ALMA detection of CO rotational line emission in AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Semi-Regular Variables in the Solar Neighbourhood
• The mass-loss rates of red supergiants at low metallicity: Detection of rotational CO emission from two red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Mid-IR period-magnitude relations for AGB stars
• Circumstellar CO in metal-poor stellar winds: the highly irradiated globular cluster star 47 Tucanae V3

Cited by in corpus (25)

• (Sub)stellar companions shape the winds of evolved stars
• Carbon star formation as seen through the non-monotonic initial-final mass relation
• Evolution and Mass Loss of Cool Ageing Stars: a Daedalean Story
• Binarity as the Origin of Long Secondary Periods in Red Giant Stars
• Modelling Long-Period Variables -- II. Fundamental mode pulsation in the nonlinear regime
• ATOMIUM: ALMA tracing the origins of molecules in dust forming oxygen rich M-type stars: Motivation, sample, calibration, and initial results
• Betelgeuse fainter in the sub-millimetre too: an analysis of JCMT and APEX monitoring during the recent optical minimum
• Atomium: A high-resolution view on the highly asymmetric wind of the AGB star Pi1 Gruis. I. First detection of a new companion and its effect on the inner wind
• A Fresh Look at AGB stars in Galactic Open Clusters with Gaia: Impact on Stellar Models and the Initial-Final Mass Relation
• Asteroseismology of luminous red giants with Kepler. II. Dependence of mass loss on pulsations and radiation
• The Isaac Newton Telescope monitoring survey of Local Group dwarf galaxies. I. Survey overview and first results for Andromeda I
• Semi-regular red giants as distance indicators I. The period-luminosity relations of semi-regular variables revisited
• Connection between the Long Secondary Period phenomenon and the red giant evolution
• Stellar Pulsation and the Production of Dust and Molecules in Galactic Carbon Stars
• The Isaac Newton Telescope Monitoring Survey of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies. VI. The Star Formation History and Dust Production in Andromeda IX
• An infrared study of Galactic OH/IR stars. III. Variability properties of the Arecibo sample
• The impact of third dredge-up on the mass loss of Mira variables
• Do Miras show the long secondary periods?
• Characterising the AGB bump and its potential to constrain mixing processes in stellar interiors
• Circumstellar CO J = 3-2 detected around the evolving metal-poor ([Fe/H] ~ -1.15 dex) AGB star RU Vulpeculae
• Self-Excited Pulsations and the Instability Strip of Long-Period Variables: the Transition from Small-Amplitude Red Giants to Semi-Regular Variables
• Infrared variable stars in the compact elliptical galaxy M32
• On the Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Contribution to the Light of Nearby Disk Galaxies
• Searching for Galactic Red Supergiants with Gaia RVS Spectra
• The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey II: Constructing a volume-limited sample and first results from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope