Formation of dust particles in cool stellar outflows

E. Sedlmayr and D. Krüger

in Astrophysical Implications of the Laboratory Study of Presolar Materials. St. Louis, MO, October 1996. Edited by Thomas J. Bernatowicz and Ernst Zinner. Woodbury, N.Y. : American Institute of Physics, c1997., p.425

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Abstract:

The formation of grains in circumstellar outflows is reviewed. Special emphasis is laid on the distinction between the condensation of seed particles and the further growth of these particles serving as nucleation centers for solid material built up by abundant elements. Depending on whether the gas phase is oxygen- or carbon-rich fundamentally different dust grains will form. As it turns out, the predictions of dust formation theory seem to be in good agreement with experimental findings from laboratory investigations of presolar grains extracted from meteorites. We also briefly survey the state of modeling dust producing red giants on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB).