Great strides have been made in recent years to better understand the late stages of stellar evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars, and, specifically, the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and post-AGB (PAGB) phases. Even still, there is a great amount of work to be done, as large discrepancies between theory and observations remain. In this dissertation, I perform observational studies of pre- and post-AGB stellar evolution for stars in this mass range, so as to provide better constraints for future theoretical models. For stars with masses 2 Msun, the horizontal-branch (HB) is the phase of evolution immediately preceding the AGB. Stars lying above the HB in the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of globular clusters (GCs) offer valuable observational tests of theoretical evolutionary tracks. I therefore compiled what is to date the most complete survey of above-horizontal-branch (AHB) stars--objects lying above the HB and blueward of the AGB in the CMD--in 97 Galactic and seven Magellanic Cloud GCs. I selected AHB candidates based on photometry in the uBVI system, which is optimized for detection of low-gravity stars with large Balmer jumps, in the color range -0.05 (B-V)_0

This book deals with stars during a short episode before they undergo a ma jor, and fatal, transition. Soon the star will stop releasing nudear energy, it will become a planetary nebula for abrief but poetic moment, and then it will turn into a white dwarf and slowly fade out of sight. Just before this dramatic change begins the star has reached the highest luminosity and the largest diameter in its existence, and while it is a star detectable in galaxies beyond the Local Group, its structure contains already the inconspicuous white dwarf it will become. It is called an "asymptotic giant branch star" or "AGB star". Over the last 30 odd years AGB stars have become a topic of their own although individual members of this dass had already been studied for cen turies without realizing what they were. In the early evolution, so called "E-AGB"-phase, the stars are a bit bluer than, but otherwise very similar to, what are now called red giant branch stars (RGB stars). It is only in the sec ond half of their anyhow brief existence that AGB stars differ fundamentally from RGB stars.

Asymptotic giant branch stars are red supergiant stars of low-to-intermediate mass. This class of stars is of particular interest because many of these stars can have nuclear processed material brought up repeatedly from the deep interior to the surface where it can be observed. A review of recent theoretical and observational work on stars undergoing the asymptotic giant branch phase is presented. 41 refs.

We attempt to study the ability of asymptotic giant branch stars to produce s-process elements as a function of initial mass and metallicity. The normal methods of extracting information from spectroscopic observations of the surfaces of these stars are reviewed and it is shown how misleading some of the past claims are and which methods of analysis might eliminate the current confusion. Results from stellar evolution models are brought together in order to establish trends of certain parameters as functions of one or two other parameters. Using these parameterizations, we have determined the s-process abundances created by these stars for different scenarios, and we have related them to surface features that are observable. It is found that the two commonly advocated sources for s-process neutrons cannot produce observational features of MS and S stars as the scenarios are put forth in the literature. It is found, however, that perturbations of these models within the physical limitations of the more popular scenarios can result in observational features of MS and S stars. We also look at the limitations put upon various s-process scenarios by galactic chemical evolution, where we find that AGB stars as an s-process source are consistent with the trends in the heavy elements as a function of the metallicity history of the galaxy. It is also realized that the nucleosynthetic yield of any s-process source must be relatively insensitive to the initial composition of the progenitor star.

The underlying astrophysical mechanisms of the objects known as asymptotic giant branch stars - the structures that occur during the dramatic period prior to a star's death - is the main theme of this text. Over the past three decades, asymptotic giant branch stars have become a topic of their own, and the contributions to this volume all focus on these entities themselves, rather than their connections to other fields of astronomy. Among the many topics covered are new methods of high- quality infrared observation and the more detailed and realistic simulations made possible by increasingly fast computers. This collection should be useful to graduate students who work in the field, teachers who want to address the subject in their courses, and to astronomers from various backgrounds who are interested in the astrophysics of AGB stars.