Effects of Stellar Mass Loss on the Formation of Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

Over the last decade, stellar mass loss has become recognized as an important factor in the evolution of stars. The magnitude of the mass loss rate is found to be greatest amongst high luminosity stars at both the red and blue sides of the HR diagram. Planetary nebulae (PN), which result from an evolutionary phase during which the parent star traverses from the red side to the blue in a relatively short time scale, are likely to be affected by these processes. In this talk, I shall review the mass loss processes relevant to the PN phase and discuss their affects on the formation and evolution of PN.