Models of AGB Stars and their Nucleosynthesis

Abstract

The occurrence of recursive thermonuclear runaways makes the computation of AGB evolutionary sequences and the related nucleosynthesis a challenging task for stellar modelers. In the last 20 years many efforts have been made to improve the physical description of the interiors of these stars. Nevertheless, the majority of the extant nucleosynthesis results are based on post-process calculations, in which the evolution of the nuclear network and that of the stellar structure are treated separately and, hence, decoupled. In this paper, we review the latest attempts made to obtain more reliable nucleosynthesis calculations based on the physical processes expected to be at work in AGB stars, such as the mixing induced by convection and rotation.