STELLAR EVOLUTION WITH MASS-LOSS - COMPARISON OF NUMERICAL AND SEMIANALYTICAL COMPUTATIONS

We present here results of stellar evolution calculations that include the latest advances in radiative opacities and neutrino cooling, and discuss on the basis of these models how the internal stellar structur e responds to mass loss from the stellar surface. This problem has par ticular importance for the development of semi-analytical algorithms f or efficient calculation of synthetic stellar populations with realist ic (and hence complex) mass-loss scenarios, We therefore compare our n umerical results with test calculations based on a semi-analytical ste llar evolution method developed by us. Although small, but important, differences between results from the two methods are revealed, the evo lutionary tracks in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram predicted by the t wo approaches are almost identical.