Understanding Mass-Loss and the late Evolution of Intermediate Mass
  Stars: Jets, Disks, Binarity, Dust and Magnetic Fields
  Almost all stars in the 1-8 Msun range evolve through the Asymptotic Giant
Branch (AGB), preplanetary nebula (PPN) and planetary nebula (PN) evolutionary
phases. Most stars that leave the main sequence in a Hubble time will end their
lives in this way. The heavy mass loss which occurs during the AGB phase is
important across astrophysics, and the particulate matter crucial for the birth
of new solar systems is made and ejected by AGB stars. Yet stellar evolution
from the beginning of the AGB phase to the PN phase remains poorly understood.
We do not understand how the mass-loss (rate, geometry, temporal history)
depends on fundamental stellar parameters or the presence of a binary
companion. While the study of evolved non-massive stars has maintained a
relatively modest profile in recent decades, we are nonetheless in the midst of
a quiet but exciting revolution in this area, driven by new observational
results, such as the discovery of jets and disks in stellar environments where
these were never expected, and by the recognition of new symmetries such as
multipolarity and point-symmetry occuring frequently in the nebulae resulting
from the outflows. In this paper we summarise the major unsolved problems in
this field, and specify the areas where allocation of effort and resources is
most likely to help make significant progress.
