Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userMerged ionization/dissociation fronts in planetary nebulae
88
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
The hydrogen ionization and dissociation front around an ultraviolet radiation source should merge when the ratio of ionizing photon flux to gas density is sufficiently low and the spectrum is sufficiently hard. This regime is particularly relevant to the molecular knots that are commonly found in evolved planetary nebulae, such as the Helix Nebula, where traditional models of photodissociation regions have proved unable to explain the high observed luminosity in H_2 lines. In this paper we present results for the structure and steady-state dynamics of such advection-dominated merged fronts, calculated using the Cloudy plasma/molecular physics code. We find that the principal destruction processes for H_2 are photoionization by extreme ultraviolet radiation and charge exchange reactions with protons, both of which form H_2^+, which rapidly combines with free electrons to undergo dissociative recombination. Advection moves the dissociation front to lower column densities than in the static case, which vastly increases the heating in the partially molecular gas due to photoionization of He^0, H_2, and H^0. This causes a significant fraction of the incident bolometric flux to be re-radiated as thermally excited infrared H_2 lines, with the lower excitation pure rotational lines arising in 1000 K gas and higher excitation H_2 lines arising in 2000 K gas, as is required to explain the H_2 spectrum of the Helix cometary knots.
rate research
Read More
We present new results of a program aimed at studying the physical properties, origin and evolution of those phenomena which go under the somewhat generic definition of low-ionization, small-scale structures in PNe. We have obtained morphological and kinematical data for 10 PNe, finding low-ionization structures with very different properties relative to each other, in terms of expansion velocities, shapes, sizes and locations relatively to the main nebular components. It is clear that several physical processes have to be considered in order to account for the formation and evolution of the different structures observed. We present here some results that are illustrative of our work - on IC 4593, NGC 3918, K 1-2, Wray 17-1, NGC 6337, He 2-186 and K 4-47 - and some of the questions that we try to address.
Around 50 PNe are presently known to possess small-scale low-ionization structures (LISs). We consider here jets, jet-like, symmetrical and non-symmetrical LISs and present a detailed comparison of the existing model predictions with the observational morphological and kinematical properties. We find that nebulae with LISs appear indistinctly spread among all morphological classes of PNe, indicating that the processes leading to the formation of LISs are not necessarily related to those responsible for the asphericity of the large-scale morphological components of PNe. We show that both the observed velocities and locations of most non-symmetrical LISs can be reasonably well reproduced assuming either fossil condensations originated in the AGB wind or in-situ instabilities. The jet models proposed to date (HD and MHD interacting winds or accretion-disk collimated winds) appear unable to account simultaneously for the kinematical ages and the angle between the jet and the symmetry axes of the nebulae. The linear increase in velocity observed in several jets favors MHD confinement compared to pure HD interacting wind models. On the other hand, we find that the formation of jet-like systems characterized by relatively low expansion velocities cannot be explained by any of the existing models. Finally, the knots which appear in symmetrical and opposite pairs of low velocity could be understood as the survival of fossil (symmetrical) condensations formed during the AGB phase or as structures that have experienced substantial slowing down by the ambient medium.
We compute a large grid of photoionization models that covers a wide range of physical parameters and is representative of most of the observed PNe. Using this grid, we derive new formulae for the ionization correction factors (ICFs) of He, O, N, Ne, S, Ar, Cl, and C. Analytical expressions to estimate the uncertainties arising from our ICFs are also provided. This should be useful since these uncertainties are usually not considered when estimating the error bars in element abundances. Our ICFs are valid over a variety of assumptions such as the input metallicities, the spectral energy distribution of the ionizing source, the gas distribution, or the presence of dust grains. Besides, the ICFs are adequate both for large aperture observations and for pencil-beam observations in the central zones of the nebulae. We test our ICFs on a large sample of observed PNe that extends as far as possible in ionization, central star temperature, and metallicity, by checking that the Ne/O, S/O, Ar/O, and Cl/O ratios show no trend with the degree of ionization. Our ICFs lead to significant differences in the derived abundance ratios as compared with previous determinations, especially for N/O, Ne/O, and Ar/O.
I review the progress in research on intracluster planetary nebulae over the last five years. Hundreds more intracluster planetary nebulae have been detected in the nearby Virgo and Fornax galaxy clusters, searches of several galaxy groups have been made, and intracluster planetary candidates have been detected in the distant Coma cluster. The first theoretical studies of intracluster planetaries have also been completed, studying their utility as tracers of the intracluster light as a whole, and also as individual objects. From the results to date, it appears that intracluster planetaries are common in galaxy clusters (10-20% of the total amount of starlight), but thus far, none have been detected in galaxy groups, a result which currently is not well understood. Limited spectroscopic follow-up of intracluster planetaries in Virgo indicate that they have a complex velocity structure, in agreement with numerical models of intracluster light. Hydrodynamic simulations of individual intracluster planetaries predict that their morphology is significantly altered by their intracluster environment, but their emission-line properties appear to be unaffected.
Stars at the top of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) can exhibit maser emission from molecules like SiO, H2O and OH. As the star evolves to the planetary nebula phase, mass-loss stops and ionization of the envelope begins, making the masers disappear progressively. The OH masers in PNe can be present in the envelope for periods of ~1000 years but the water masers can survive only hundreds of years. Then, water maser emission is not expected in planetary nebulae! We discuss the unambiguous detection of water maser emission in two planetary nebulae: K 3-35 and IRAS 17347-3139.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
