Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. art63 c ESO 2018 November 10, 2018 Luminosities and mass-loss rates of SMC and LMC AGB stars and Red Supergiants ⋆ M. A. T. Groenewegen1, G. C. Sloan2, I. Soszy´nski3, and E. A. Petersen4,5 1 Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van Belgi¨e, Ringlaan 3, B–1180 Brussels, Belgium e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Cornell University, Astronomy Department, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA 3 Warsaw University Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland 4 University of Nebraska, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA 5 NSF REU Research Assistant, Cornell University, Astronomy Department, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA received: 2009, accepted: 20-08-2009 ABSTRACT Context Mass loss is one of the fundamental properties of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, and through the enrichment of the interstellar medium, AGB stars are key players in the life cycle of dust and gas in the universe. However, a quantitative understanding of the mass-loss process is still largely lacking, particularly its dependence on metallicity. Aims To investigate the relation between mass loss, luminosity and pulsation period for a large sample of evolved stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Cloud. Results Dust radiative transfer models are presented for 101 carbon stars and 86 oxygen-rich evolved stars in the Magellanic Clouds for which 5–35 µm Spitzer IRS spectra are available. The spectra are complemented with available optical and infrared photometry to construct the spectral energy distribution. A minimisation procedure is used to fit luminosity, mass-loss rate and dust temperature at the inner radius.