S-process enrichment in the planetary nebula NGC 3918. Results from deep echelle spectrophotometry

(Abridged) The chemical content of the planetary nebula NGC 3918 is investigated through deep, high-resolution UVES at VLT spectrophotometric data. We identify and measure more than 750 emission lines, making ours one of the deepest spectra ever taken for a planetary nebula. Among these lines we detect very faint lines of several neutron-capture elements (Se, Kr, Rb, and Xe), which enable us to compute their chemical abundances with unprecedented accuracy, thus constraining the efficiency of the s-process and convective dredge-up in the progenitor star of NGC 3918. We find that Kr is strongly enriched in NGC 3918 and that Se is less enriched than Kr, in agreement with the results of previous papers and with predicted s-process nucleosynthesis. We also find that Xe is not as enriched by the s-process in NGC 3918 as is Kr and, therefore, that neutron exposure is typical of modestly sub-solar metallicity AGB stars. A clear correlation is found when representing [Kr/O] vs. log(C/O) for NGC 3918 and other objects with detection of multiple ions of Kr in optical data, confirming that carbon is brought to the surface of AGB stars along with s-processed material during third dredge-up episodes, as predicted by nucleosynthesis models. We also detect numerous refractory element lines (Ca, K, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu). We compute physical conditions from a large number of diagnostics. Thanks to the high ionization of NGC 3918 we detect a large number of recombination lines of multiple ionization stages of C, N, O and Ne. The abundances obtained for these elements by using recently-determined state-of-the-art ICF schemes or simply adding ionic abundances are in very good agreement, demonstrating the quality of the recent ICF scheme for high ionization planetary nebulae.

The radial abundance gradient of chlorine in the Milky Way

We determine the radial abundance gradient of Cl in the Milky Way from HII regions spectra. For the first time, the Cl/H ratios are computed by simply adding ionic abundances and not using an ionization correction factor (ICF). We use a collection of published very deep spectra of Galactic HII regions. We have re-calculated the physical conditions, ionic and total abundances of Cl and O using the same methodology and updated atomic data for all the objects. We find that the slopes of the radial gradients of Cl and O are identical within the uncertainties: -0.043 dex/kpc. This is consistent with a lockstep evolution of both elements. We obtain that the mean value of the Cl/O ratio across the Galactic disc is log(Cl/O) = -3.42 +/- 0.06. We compare our Cl/H ratios with those determined from Cl++ abundances and using some available ICF schemes of the literature. We find that our total Cl abundances are always lower than the values determined using ICFs, indicating that those correction schemes systematically overestimate the contribution of Cl+ and Cl+++ species to the total Cl abundance. Finally, we propose an empirical ICF(Cl++) to estimate the Cl/H ratio in HII regions.

s-process Enrichment in the Planetary Nebula NGC 3918

We present deep, high-resolution (R~40000) UVES at VLT spectrophotometric data of the planetary nebula NGC 3918. This is one of the deepest spectra ever taken of a planetary nebula. We have identified and measured more than 700 emission lines and, in particular, we have detected very faint lines of several neutron-capture elements (s-process elements: Kr, Xe and Rb) that enable us to compute their chemical abundances with unprecedented accuracy, thus constraining the efficiency of the s-process and convective dredge-up.

Analysis of chemical abundances in planetary nebulae with [WC] central stars. II. Chemical abundances and the abundance discrepancy factor

(Abridged) We present the abundance analysis of 12 PNe ionized by [WC]-type stars and wels obtained from high-resolution spectrophotometric data. Our main aims are to determine the chemical composition of the PNe and to study the behaviour of the abundance discrepancy problem (ADF) in this type of planetary nebulae. The detection of a large number of optical recombination lines (ORLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs) from different ions were presented previously. Most of the ORLs were reported for the first time in these PNe. Ionic abundances were derived from the available CELs and ORLs, using previously determined physical conditions. Based on these two sets of ionic abundances, we derived the total chemical abundances in the nebulae using suitable ICFs (when available). In spite of the [WC] nature of the central stars, moderate ADF(O^++), in the range from 1.2 to 4, were found for all the objects. We found that when the quality of the spectra is high enough the ORLs O^++/H^+ abundance ratios obtained from different multiplets excited mainly by recombination are very similar. Possible dependence of ADFs with some nebular characteristics were analysed, finding no correlation. Abundances derived from CELs were corrected by determining the t^2 parameter. O abundances for PNe, derived from ORLs, are in general larger than the solar abundance. We derived the C/O ratio from ORLs and N/O and alpha-element/O ratios from CELs and found that these PNe are, in average, N-and C-richer than the average of large PN samples. About half of our sample is C-rich (C/O>1). The alpha-elements grow in lockstep with O abundance. Comparing the N/O and C /O ratios with those derived from stellar evolution models, we estimate that about half of our PNe have progenitors with initial masses > 4 M_sun. No correlation was found between the stellar [WC]-type and the nebular abundances.

Using HII region spectra to probe the ionizing radiation from massive stars

We present some results of an on-going project aimed at studying a sample of Galactic HII regions ionized by a single massive star to test the predictions of modern generation stellar atmosphere codes in the H Lyman continuum. The observations collected for this study comprise the optical spectra of the corresponding ionizing stars, along with imaging and long-slit spatially resolved nebular observations. The analysis of the stellar spectra allows to obtain the stellar parameters of the ionizing star, while the nebular observations provide constraints on the nebular abundances and gas distribution. All this information is then used to construct tailored photoionization models of the HII regions. The reliability of the stellar ionizing fluxes is hence tested by comparing the photoionization model results with the observations in terms of the spatial variation across the nebula of an appropriate set of nebular line ratios.