Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The X-Ray And Spectropolarimetric View Of Mass Loss And Transfer In Massive Binary Stars, Jamie Renae Lomax

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The majority of massive stars are members of binary systems. In order to have a better understanding of their evolutionary pathways, the mass and angular momentum loss from massive binaries needs to be well understood. Self consistent explanations for their behavior need to be valid across many wavelength regimes in order to illuminate key phases of mass loss to completely determine how it affects their evolution. In this dissertation I present the results of X-ray and specropolarimetric studies on one Roche-lobe overflow binary (β Lyr) and two colliding wind binaries (V444 Cyg and WR 140).

In β Lyr a …

Mass Loss History Of Evolved Stars, Kathleen M. Geise

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We provide high-resolution maps of the circumstellar dust shells of several dozen Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars using data from the Spitzer space telescope Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) imaged at 70µm. AGB stars are the major contributors of chemical elements such as carbon, oxygen and silicon, which are essential to the existence of life in the universe, through mass loss processes that take place at the surface of the star. We probe the spatial distribution of cold (~40 K) dust grains in order to trace the history of mass loss from the observed radial density variation in these shells. Our …