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Register a new userThe mysterious cut-off of the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function
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Added by
Marcelo Miguel Miller Bertolami
Publication date
2018
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Planetary Nebulae (PN) emit enormous amount of energy in several emission lines. Measuring the line-flux for PNe in a given stellar population, the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) can be compiled. Surveys of PNe revealed that the faint-end of the PNLF can be approximated by a simple exponential dependency expected for an expanding spherical shell. However at the bright-end there exists a steep cut-off which was unexpected and remains unexplained. Interestingly, the cut-off value appears to be nearly the same for different stellar populations as young spiral galaxies and old elliptical galaxies and, despite the lack of understanding, became an extragalactic distance estimator. Here we show that the recently computed post-AGB evolutionary tracks are capable to explain the decades old mystery. All new models with ages between 1 and 7 Gyr (progenitor masses between 2.0 and 1.1 of solar mass) evolve fast enough to ionize the PN, and at similar post-AGB luminosity which allows the [O III] 500.7nm line to reach nearly the same magnitude. The new models predict that the Sun at the end of its life will form a rather faint PN.
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The planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) has been used as an extragalactic distance indicator since the 1980s, but there are still unsolved problems associated with its use. One of the most serious involves PNLF distances beyond ~ 10 Mpc, which tend to be slightly smaller than those of other methods. We consider the implications of previous spectroscopic investigations that found that several of the brightest planetary nebula (PN) candidates in M74 are actually compact supernova remnants (SNRs). Using narrow-band imaging data from the KPNO 4-m telescope, we measure the [O III] $lambda$5007 and H$alpha$ fluxes of all the known SNRs in M31 and M33, and test whether those objects could be misidentified as bright PNe at distances beyond ~ 10 Mpc. Our results suggest that compact SNRs are not an important source of contamination in photometric surveys for extragalactic PNe.
The Planetary Nebulae Luminosity Function (PNLF) describes the collective luminosity evolution for a given population of Planetary Nebulae (PN). A major paradox in current PNLF studies is in the universality of the absolute magnitude of the brightest PNe with galaxy type and age. The progenitor central-star mass required to produce such bright PNe should have evolved beyond the PNe phase in old, red elliptical galaxies whose stellar populations are ~10~Gyr. Only by dissecting this resolved population in detail can we attempt to address this conundrum. The Bulge of our Galaxy is predominantly old citep{Z03} and can therefore be used as a proxy for an elliptical galaxy, but with the significant advantage that the population is resolvable from ground based telescopes. We have used the MOSAIC-II camera on the Blanco 4-m at CTIO to carefully target ~80 square degrees of the Galactic Bulge and establish accurate [Oiii] fluxes for 80% of Bulge PNe currently known from the Acker and MASH catalogues. Construction of the [Oiii] Bulge PNLF has allowed us to investigate placement of PNe population sub-sets according to morphology and spectroscopic properties the PNLF and most importantly, whether any population subset might constitute the bright end of the LF. Our excellent, deep data also offers exciting prospects for significant new PNe discoveries and [Oiii] morphological studies.
The ACIS-S camera on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been used to discover a hot bubble in the planetary nebula (PN) IC4593, the most distant PN detected by Chandra so far. The data are used to study the distribution of the X-ray-emitting gas in IC 4593 and to estimate its physical properties. The hot bubble has a radius of ~2$^{primeprime}$ and is found to be confined inside the optically-bright innermost cavity of IC 4593. The X-ray emission is mostly consistent with that of an optically-thin plasma with temperature $kTapprox0.15$ keV (or $T_mathrm{X}approx1.7times10^{6}$ K), electron density $n_mathrm{e}approx15$ cm$^{-3}$, and intrinsic X-ray luminosity in the 0.3-1.5 keV energy range $L_mathrm{X}=3.4times10^{30}$ erg s$^{-1}$. A careful analysis of the distribution of hard ($E>$0.8 keV) photons in IC 4593 suggests the presence of X-ray emission from a point source likely associated with its central star (CSPN). If this were the case, its estimated X-ray luminosity would be $L_mathrm{X,CSPN}=7times10^{29}$ erg s$^{-1}$, fulfilling the log$(L_mathrm{X,CSPN}/L_mathrm{bol})approx-7$ relation for self-shocking winds in hot stars. The X-ray detection of the CSPN helps explain the presence of high-ionisation species detected in the UV spectra as predicted by stellar atmosphere models.
The HASH (Hong Kong/ AAO/ Strasbourg/ H{alpha}) planetary nebula research platform is a unique data repository with a graphical interface and SQL capability that offers the community powerful, new ways to undertake Galactic PN studies. HASH currently contains multi-wavelength images, spectra, positions, sizes, morphologies and other data whenever available for 2401 true, 447 likely, and 692 possible Galactic PNe, for a total of 3540 objects. An additional 620 Galactic post-AGB stars, pre-PNe, and PPN candidates are included. All objects were classified and evaluated following the precepts and procedures established and developed by our group over the last 15 years. The complete database contains over 6,700 Galactic objects including the many mimics and related phenomena previously mistaken or confused with PNe. Curation and updating currently occurs on a weekly basis to keep the repository as up to date as possible until the official release of HASH v1 planned in the near future.
We present a visible-infrared imaging study of young planetary nebula (PN) Hubble 12 (Hb 12; PN G111.8-02.8) obtained with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archival data and our own Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) measurements. Deep HST and CFHT observations of this nebula reveal three pairs of bipolar structures and an arc-shaped filament near the western waist of Hb 12. The existence of nested bipolar lobes together with the presence of H2 knots suggests that these structures originated from several mass-ejection events during the pre-PN phase. To understand the intrinsic structures of Hb 12, a three-dimensional model enabling the visualisation of this PN at various orientations was constructed. The modelling results show that Hb 12 may resemble other nested hourglass nebulae, such as Hen 2-320 and M 2-9, suggesting that this type of PN may be common and the morphologies of PNs are not so diverse as is shown by their visual appearances. The infrared spectra show that this PN has a mixed chemistry. We discuss the possible material that may cause the unidentified infrared emissions. The analyses of the infrared spectra and the spectral energy distribution suggest the existence of a cool companion in the nucleus of this object.
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