The chemical evolution of the Universe is governed by the chemical yields from stars, which in turn are determined primarily by the initial stellar mass. Even stars as low as 0.9 M can, at low metallicity, contribute to the chemical evolution of elements. Stars less massive than about 10 M experience recurrent mixing events that can significantly change the surface composition of the envelope, with observed enrichments in carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, and heavy elements synthesized by the slow neutron capture process (the s-process). Low-and intermediate-mass stars release their nucleosynthesis products through stellar outflows or winds, in contrast to massive stars that explode as core-collapse supernovae. Here we review the stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis for single stars up to ∼10 M from the main sequence through to the tip of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). We include a discussion of the main uncertainties that affect theoretical calculations and review the latest observational data, which are used to constrain uncertain details of the stellar models. We finish with a review of the stellar yields available for stars less massive than about 10 M and discuss efforts by various groups to address these issues and provide homogeneous yields for low-and intermediate-mass stars covering a broad range of metallicities. Keywords

We present stellar yields calculated from detailed models of low and intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We evolve models with a range of mass from 1 to 6 M , and initial metallicities from solar to 1/200th of the solar metallicity. Each model was evolved from the zero age main sequence to near the end of the thermally pulsing (TP) AGB phase, and through all intermediate phases including the core He-flash for stars initially less massive than 2.5 M . For each mass and metallicity, we provide tables containing structural details of the stellar models during the TP-AGB phase, and tables of the stellar yields for 74 species from hydrogen through to sulfur, and for a small number of iron-group nuclei. All tables are available for download. Our results have many applications including use in population synthesis studies and the chemical evolution of galaxies and stellar systems, and for comparison to the composition of AGB and post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae.

We present new evolutionary sequences for low and intermediate mass stars (1−6M⊙) for three different metallicities, Z = 0.02, 0.008, and 0.004. We evolve the models from the pre-main sequence to the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase. We have two sequences of models for each mass, one which includes mass loss and one without mass loss. Typically 20 or more pulses have been followed for each model, allowing us to calculate the third dredge-up parameter for each case. Using the results from this large and homogeneous set of models, we present an approximate fit for the core mass at the first thermal pulse, Mc1, as well as for the third dredge-up efficiency parameter, λ, and the core mass at the first dredge-up episode, Mcmin, as a function of metallicity and total mass. We also examine the effect of a reduced envelope mass on the value of λ.

The GALAH survey is a large high-resolution spectroscopic survey using the newly commissioned HERMES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The HER-MES spectrograph provides high-resolution (R ∼28,000) spectra in four passbands for 392 stars simultaneously over a 2 degree field of view. The goal of the survey is to unravel the formation and evolutionary history of the Milky Way, using fossil remnants of ancient star formation events which have been disrupted and are now dispersed throughout the Galaxy. Chemical tagging seeks to identify such dispersed remnants solely from their common and unique chemical signatures; these groups are unidentifiable from their spatial, photometric or kinematic properties. To carry out chemical tagging, the GALAH survey will acquire spectra for a million stars down to V ∼14. The HERMES spectra of FGK stars contain absorption lines from 29 elements including light proton-capture elements, α-elements, odd-Z elements, iron-peak elements and n-capture elements from the light and heavy s-process and the r-process. This paper describes the motivation and planned execution of the GALAH survey, and presents some results on the first-light performance of HERMES.

We present nucleosynthesis calculations and the resulting 19 F stellar yields for a large set of models with different masses and metallicity. During the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase, 19 F is produced as a consequence of nucleosynthesis occurring during the convective thermal pulses and also during the interpulse periods if protons from the envelope are partially mixed in the top layers of the He intershell (partial mixing zone). We find that the production of fluorine depends on the temperature of the convective pulses, the amount of primary 12 C mixed into the envelope by third dredge-up, and the extent of the partial mixing zone. Then we perform a detailed analysis of the reaction rates involved in the production of 19 F and the effects of their uncertainties. We find that the major uncertainties are associated with the 14 C(,) 18 O and 19 F(, p) 22 Ne reaction rates. For these two reactions we present new estimates of the rates and their uncertainties. In both cases the revised rates are lower than previous estimates. The effect of the inclusion of the partial mixing zone on the production of fluorine strongly depends on the very uncertain 14 C(,) 18 O reaction rate. The importance of the partial mixing zone is reduced when using our estimate for this rate. Overall, rate uncertainties result in uncertainties in the fluorine production of about 50% in stellar models with mass '3 M and of about a factor of 7 in stellar models of mass '5 M. This larger effect at high masses is due to the high uncertainties of the 19 F(, p) 22 Ne reaction rate. Taking into account both the uncertainties related to the partial mixing zone and those related to nuclear reactions, the highest values of 19 F enhancements observed in AGB stars are not matched by the models. This is a problem that will have to be revised by providing a better understanding of the formation and nucleosynthesis in the partial mixing zone, as well as in relation to reducing the uncertainties of the 14 C(,) 18 O reaction rate. At the same time, the possible effect of cool bottom processing at the base of the convective envelope should be included in the computation of AGB nucleosynthesis. This process could, in principle, help to match the highest 19 F abundances observed by decreasing the C/O ratio at the surface of the star, while leaving the 19 F abundance unchanged.