Evolutionary Properties of Intermediate-Mass Stars

Abstract

Abstract. We briefly review the main problems related to the computation of the evolution of intermediate-mass stars: the treatment of turbulent convection and the occurrence of blue loops during the core He-burning phase. It is shown that, in order to obtain more accurate and reliable stellar models for this class of stars, one has to consider all possible theoretical and observational constraints. This includes observations of low-mass stars to constrain the treatment of envelope convection, and the analysis of the pulsational behaviour of Cepheid stars.

Stellar Evolutionary Models: challenges from observations of stellar systems

“…Such an investigation has been extended to later evolutionary phases by Cassisi et al (1998Cassisi et al ( , 1999, , and Gallart et al (2005). A discussion of the drawbacks of stellar models for low-mass stars and their impact on the most used age, distance and chemical composition indicators has been also provided by Cassisi (2005 and references therein); while the issue of the main uncertainties affecting the evolutionary properties of intermediate-mass stars has been reviewed by Cassisi (2004).…”