Low and Intermediate Mass Stars as Tools to Understand Stellar Evolution and the Formation of the MilkyWay

摘要

In this work we show the importance of low and intermediate mass stars (the progenitors of planetary nebulae) for the enrichment of the interstellar medium in C and N. We compare our chemical evolution model predictions for the evolution of C and N in the solar vicinity with observations. We show that our predictions for the evolution of these two key elements are strongly dependent on the adopted stellar yields and hence offer us insight on some still uncertain processes in stellar evolution, such as rotation, mass loss and hot bottom burning. Results are also shown for the abundance gradients along the galactic disk which again give us important information on nucleosynthesis but also on how the thin disk formed.