Investigation of the dust formation and violent mass loss of evolved stars
Final Report Abstract
I have shown capability of troubleshooting and assessing processing and development problems. I have also implemented new ideas through several successful observing proposals that have been scheduled. I have become highly involved in science teams for Gaia-ESO and 4MOST. Moreover, I have established new collaborations worldwide. Within the duration of the programs large amount of highly valuable interferometric data have been collected. In the past, there was an attempt to collect interferometric measurements of stars that would serve as calibrators for large stellar surveys. However, collecting interferometric data is technically very challenging and time-consuming (reliable observations of one star takes several observing runs distributed over a long period of time). Therefore, the consistent observation and analysis of a set of calibrating stars is still missing. To date, interferometric measurements were collected from individual and unrelated observations reported in the literature. Thus, collecting a first sample of such data can be considered as a big success. In order to exploit the vast amount of data, a known scale based on a very well-studied sample of stars has to be established. Only such a set of reference stars (calibrators) allows us to accurately calibrate and cross-calibrate the extraordinary amount of precious data collected by large spectroscopic surveys. This task is essential, but extremely difficult to accomplish due to the challenging aspects of the precise measurement of the basic properties of these reference stars. However, only after defining the proper scale can we study our Galaxy in detail. Therefore, the results of the project will have an immediate broad impact on the whole astrophysical community.
