Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 July 2004
Dust forming systems, in which a phase transition between the gas phase and the solid state takes place, are seriously affected by the presence of dust, which causes tight, non-linear interactions between various physical and chemical processes. As a consequence, the dynamics of, e.g., a stellar atmosphere and the formation ofdust grains are inseparably connected. Chemical conditions, dust formation, and dust-induced instabilities in such non-linearly coupled systems as well as some implications regarding stellar evolution are discussed.