English

A search for CO+ in planetary nebulae

Astrophysics 2011-02-15 v1

Abstract

We have carried out a systematic search for the molecular ion CO+ in a sample of 8 protoplanetary and planetary nebulae in order to determine the origin of the unexpectedly strong HCO+ emission previously detected in these sources. An understanding of the HCO+ chemistry may provide direct clues to the physical and chemical evolution of planetary nebulae. We find that the integrated intensity of the CO+ line may be correlated with that of HCO+, suggesting that the reaction of CO+ with molecular hydrogen may be an important formation route for HCO+ in these planetary nebulae.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0709.0947,
  title  = {A search for CO+ in planetary nebulae},
  author = {T. A. Bell and W. Whyatt and S. Viti and M. P. Redman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.0947},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:14:45.959Z