New input data for synthetic AGB evolution

Abstract

Analytic formulae are presented to construct detailed secular lightcurves of both early asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and thermally pulsing AGB stars. They are based on an extensive grid of evolutionary calculations, performed with an updated stellar evolution code. Basic input parameters are the initial mass between 0.8 and 7 solar mass, metallicity of 0.0001, 0.008, 0.02, and the mixing length theory (MLT) parameter. The formulae allow for two important effects, namely that the first pulses do not reach the full amplitude, and hot bottom burning (HBB) in massive stars, which are both not accounted for by core mass - luminosity relations of the usual type. Furthermore, the dependence of the effective temperature and a few other quantities characterizing the conditions at the base of the convective envelope, which are relevant for HBB, are investigated as functions of luminosity, total and core mass for different formulations of the convection theory applied, MLT or Canuto & Mazzitelli's theory.