Metallicity dependence of AGB chemical yields and dust production

Determine how metallicity affects the chemical yields and dust production of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch stars, and quantify the relative contributions of these stars to the dust and metal budgets of low-metallicity galaxies.

Background

Thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch stars are important sources of dust, carbon, nitrogen, and slow-neutron-capture elements, and they may have contributed substantially to the enrichment of low-metallicity galaxies. Nearby dwarf galaxies are therefore used as analogues for early-universe systems in which significant dust reservoirs are observed.

The paper emphasizes that the fraction of a galaxy’s dust and metal content supplied by AGB stars is not established. In particular, the dependence of chemical yields and dust production on metallicity remains unresolved, motivating larger and more homogeneous samples of TP-AGB stars at low metallicity.