Dust Formation, Mass Loss, and Diameters of Evolved Stars Observed with a Long Baseline Infrared Interferometer

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9315485 Danchi Many luminous red giant stars eject significant amounts of material from their outer layers. This culminates with the star rapidly becoming a white dwarf. Our knowledge of the mechanism by which the mass is ejected is limited. The conditions in the close vicinity of such stars will be studied. The Berkeley Infrared Spatial Interferometer will be used to determine the distribution of warm dust in the regions where the ejection is taking place. Speckle interferometry and VLBA observations will also be carried out. A primary goal is to relate the variations of the stars to the structure of the ejected dust shell and thus shed light on the ejection mechanism. ***