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Paper: Metallicity Dependence of Oxygen-rich Dust around Evolved Stars
Volume: 497, Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars III: A Closer Look in Space and Time
Page: 379
Authors: Jones, O. C.; Kemper, F.; Srinivasan, S.; McDonald, I.
Abstract: Observations of evolved stars in Local Group galaxies show that metallicity has a significant influence on the production and chemical composition of dust. In order to determine the composition of the dust in the circumstellar envelopes of oxygen-rich AGB stars, we have computed a grid of MODUST radiative-transfer models for a range of dust compositions, mass-loss rates, dust-shell inner radii and stellar parameters. We use these models to fit a sample of 37 O-rich AGB stars in the LMC with optically thin circumstellar envelopes, for which 5–35 μm Spitzer infrared spectrograph spectra and broad-band photometry from the optical to the mid-infrared are available. From the modelling, we find mass-loss rates in the range ∼ 8×10–8 to 5×10–6 M yr–1, and we show that a grain mixture consisting primarily of amorphous silicates, with contributions from amorphous alumina and metallic iron, provides a good fit to the observed spectra. We relate these recent results to other works at varying metallicity.
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