Related papers: The dark secrets of gaseous nebulae -- highlights …
Since the last IAU symposium on planetary nebulae (PNe), several deep spectroscopic surveys of the relatively faint optical recombination lines (ORLs) emitted by heavy element ions in PNe and H II regions have been completed. New diagnostic…
The discrepancy between abundances computed using optical recombination lines (ORLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs) is a major, unresolved problem with significant implications for the determination of chemical abundances throughout…
We present high quality optical spectroscopic observations of the planetary nebula (PN) Hf 2-2. The spectrum exhibits many prominent optical recombination lines (ORLs) from heavy element ions. Analysis of the H {\sc i} and He {\sc i}…
Recent weak emission-line long-slit surveys and modelling studies of PNe have convincingly argued in favour of the existence of an unknown component in the planetary nebula plasma consisting of cold, hydrogen-deficient gas, as an…
We carry out plasma diagnostic analyses for 123 planetary nebulae (PNe) and 42 H II regions using the N II and O II optical recombination lines (ORLs). New effective recombination coefficients for the N II and O II optical recombination…
Wolf-Rayet ([WR]) and weak emission-line ($wels$) central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) have hydrogen-deficient atmospheres, whose origins are not well understood. In the present study, we have conducted plasma diagnostics and abundance…
This chapter presents a review on the latest advances in the computation of physical conditions and chemical abundances of elements present in photoionized gas H II regions and planetary nebulae). The arrival of highly sensitive…
(abridged) Deep long-slit optical spectrophotometric observations are presented for 25 Galactic bulge planetary nebulae (GBPNe) and 6 Galactic disk planetary nebulae (GDPNe). The spectra, combined with archival ultraviolet spectra obtained…
High spectral resolution spectroscopy has proved to be very useful for the advancement of chemical abundances studies in photoionized nebulae, such as H II regions and planetary nebulae (PNe). Classical analyses make use of the intensity of…
[Abridged] Deep optical observations of the spectra of 12 Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) and 3 Magellanic Cloud PNe were presented in Paper I by Tsamis et al. (2003b), who carried out an abundance analysis using the collisionally excited…
We present the first direct image of the high-metallicity gas component in a planetary nebula (NGC 6778), taken with the OSIRIS Blue Tunable Filter centered on the O II 4649+50 angstroms optical recombination lines (ORLs) at the 10.4m Gran…
We report detailed analyses of deep, high-resolution spectra of three Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) with high abundance discrepancy factors (ADFs), Hf2-2, M1-42 and NGC6153, obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph…
Ionized nebulae are key to understanding the chemical composition and evolution of the Universe. Among these nebulae, H~{\sc ii} regions and planetary nebulae are particularly important as they provide insights into the present and past…
Deep spectroscopy of the planetary nebula (PN) NGC\,6153 shows that its heavy element abundances derived from optical recombination lines (ORLs) are ten times higher than those derived from collisionally excited lines (CELs), and points to…
Mid-IR observations of planetary nebulae (PNe) have revealed diffuse emission associated to their main nebular shells and outer envelopes or haloes. The interpretation of this emission is uncertain because the broad-band mid-IR images may…
We have carried out optical spectroscopic measurements of emission lines for a sample of Galactic planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars and weak emission-line stars (wels). The plasma diagnostics and elemental abundance analysis have…
Spectroscopy in the infrared provides a means to assess important properties of the plasma in gaseous nebulae. We present some of our own work that illustrates the need for interactions between the themes of this conference - astronomical…
The acquisition of high-quality deep images of planetary nebulae (PNe) has allowed the detection of a wealth of small-scale features, which highlight the complexity of the formation history and physical processes shaping PNe. Here we…
We present deep spectroscopy of three Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) with large abundance discrepancy factors (ADFs): NGC6153, M1-42 and Hf2-2. The spectra were obtained with VLT/UVES and cover the whole optical range (3040-11,000 A) with…
[Abridged] We present a critical analysis of the rich optical recombination spectrum of NGC 7009, in the context of the bi-abundance nebular model proposed by Liu et al. (2000). The observed relative intensities are compared with the…