High mass-loss AGB stars in the Galactic Bulge

The bolometric magnitudes and the corresponding luminosities of the MSX sources were derived by fitting blackbody curves. The relation between dM/dt and (Ks-[15])0 was used to derive the mass-loss rate of each MSX source in the bulge fields. Except for very few post-AGB stars, planetary nebulae and OH/IR stars, a large fraction of the detected sources at 15 micron (MSX D band) are AGB stars well above the red giant branch tip.

A number of them show an excess in ([A]-[D])0 and (Ks-[D])0 colours, characteristic of mass-loss. These colours, especially (Ks-[D])0, enable estimation of the mass-loss rates (dM/dt) of the sources in the bulge fields which range from 10^-7^ to 10^-4^M_{sun}_/yr. Taking into consideration the completeness of the mass-loss rate bins, we find that the contribution to the integrated mass-loss is probably dominated by mass-loss rates larger than 3x10^-7^M_{sun}_/yr and is about 1.96x10^-4^M_{sun}_/yr/deg^2^ in the `intermediate' and `outer' bulge fields of sources with mass-loss rates, dM/dt>3x10^-7^M_{sun}_/yr.

The corresponding integrated mass-loss rate per unit stellar mass is 0.48x10^-11^/yr. Apart from this, the various mid- and near-infrared colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams are discussed in the paper to study the nature of the stellar population in the MSX bulge fields.