Chemical diversity of post-AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds: a gateway to understanding the evolved stages of stellar evolution

Devika Kamath, Hans Van Winckel, Peter Wood & Kenneth De Smedt

Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Belgium

Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-AGB) stars bear signatures of the entire chemical and morphological changes that occur prior to and during the AGB phase of evolution. These objects also provide vital clues on the ultimate fate (both in terms of the physical structure and the chemistry) of the star. Detailed chemical abundance studies of some of these post-AGB objects have shown that they are chemically much more diverse than anticipated. As expected, some of the single post-AGB objects are the most s-process enriched objects known to date while others, the likely binary objects, are not enriched at all. However, some objects show peculiar chemical signatures which do not correspond to the accepted single/binary star evolution and nucleosynthesis models. In this talk, I will present our recent findings on the intriguing chemical diversity of our newly identified post-AGB stars in the Magellanic clouds and its implications on our widely accepted stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis theories. I will also use the observed and studied chemical diversity of these objects to identify possible precursors and successors.

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