Relation of Observable Stellar Parameters to Mass-Loss Rate of AGB Stars in the LMC

Mass loss in Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars has historically proven difficult to characterize accurately.
This is due to a multitude of factors such as differing composition--including chemistry, metallicity, and differences in carbon and oxygen ratios--and differences in their ongoing motion--particularly, differing pulsation modes. 
In mass-loss formulations, the mass-loss rate depends on some combinations of stellar parameters, including but not limited to pulsation period, mass, and luminosity.

Using a combination of stellar models and archival data, we have been working at improving the relation between these parameters and the mass-loss rate of the stars. We have used the models and data to improve on the period-mass-luminosity and radius-mass-luminosity relations for M and C stars in both the fundamental and overtone pulsation modes. Current work is focused on accounting for any remaining sources of scatter in the relation between $\dot{M}$ and our parameters $P$, $L$, and $M$.