On the Transition from AGB Stars to Planetaries: The Spherical Case

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We discuss the basic physical model and the relevant processes responsible for creating and shaping planetary nebulae out of a cool AGB wind envelope. We show that a hydrodynamical treatment along the upper AGB leads quite naturally to more realistic starting configurations for planetaries with density slopes steeper than r⁻². Taking into account photoionization and wind interaction in a realistic manner, the hydrodynamics of post-AGB wind envelopes leads to density structures and velocity fields in close resemblance to observations of spherical or elliptical planetary nebulae.