| |
 |
| Paper: |
White Dwarfs and Stellar Evolution |
| Volume: |
352, New Horizons in Astronomy: Frank N. Bash Symposium 2005 |
| Page: |
249 |
| Authors: |
Kalirai, J.S. |
| Abstract: |
The initial-to-final mass relationship represents one of the most poorly understood aspects of fundamental stellar evolution. The relation connects the mass of the final products of stellar evolution for intermediate mass stars, white dwarfs, to their initial progenitor mass as main-sequence stars. It is a key input in several areas of astrophysics, including age determinations, distances of globular star clusters, constraining chemical evolution in galaxies, and understanding feedback processes and star formation in galaxies. The combination of current generation wide-field imaging cameras on 4-meter telescopes and multi-object spectrographs on 8–10-meter telescopes have recently provided us with an unprecedented view into this relation. By first imaging and then obtaining spectroscopy of white dwarf stars in rich, open star clusters we have now been able to put strong constraints on the amount of mass that stars lose through their evolution. |
|
|
|
|
|
