Related papers: Post-common envelope PN, fundamental or irrelevant…
Planetary nebulae have been used as tracers of light and kinematics for the stellar populations in early-type galaxies since more than twenty years. Several empirical properties have surfaced: for example the invariant bright cut-off of the…
It is widely believed that central star binarity plays an important role in the formation and evolution of aspherical planetary nebulae, however observational support for this hypothesis is lacking. Here, we present the most recent results…
To understand the evolution of planetary systems, it is important to investigate planets in highly evolved stellar systems, and to explore the implications of their observed properties with respect to potential formation scenarios.…
We argue that relative to non-spherical planetary nebulae (PNs), spherical PNs are about an order of magnitude less likely to be detected, at distances of several kiloparsecs. Noting the structure similarity of halos around non-spherical…
Shaping axi-symmetric planetary nebulae is easier if a companion interacts with a primary at the top of the asymptotic giant branch. To determine the impact of binarity on planetary nebula formation and shaping, we need to determine the…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are the only single stars in galaxies outside the Local Group that can be used as kinematic tracers of the diffuse light in the extended halo. Analysing their luminosity-specific number density across galaxies of…
We present a spectroscopic investigation of 25 objects previously reported as possible Planetary Nebulae (PNe) in recent catalogs to obtain their physical properties and to establish their true nature. We found 11 objects showing intense…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) represent the near endpoints of evolution for stars of initial mass $\sim$1-8 $M_\odot$, wherein the envelope of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star becomes photodissociated and ionized by high-energy radiation…
We present a new model describing the evolution of triple stars which undergo common envelope evolution, using a combination of analytic and numerical techniques. The early stages of evolution are driven by dynamical friction with the…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of extragalactic stellar populations. Indeed, in many systems, bright PNe are the only individual objects identifiable from the ground, and, even more often, they…
The common envelope phase of binary star evolution plays a central role in many evolutionary pathways leading to the formation of compact objects in short period systems. Using three dimensional hydrodynamical computations, we review the…
While in the past spherodicity was assumed, and still is used in modeling of most nebulae, we know now that only a small number of planetary nebulae (PNe) are really spherical or at least nearly round. Round planetary nebulae are the…
Nearly 50 post-common-envelope (post-CE) close binary central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) are now known. Most contain either main sequence or white dwarf (WD) companions that orbit the WD primary in around 0.1-1.0 days. Only…
This paper reviews our knowledge on binary central stars of planetary nebulae and presents some personal opinions regarding their evolution. Three types of interactions are distinguished: type I, where the binary companion induces the mass…
Many planetary nebulae (PNe) exhibit distinctly non-axisymmetric structure in either (i) the shape of the nebula, or (ii) in the off-centered position of the illuminating star. By examining a large number of well resolved images of PNe we…
We report results of an HST "snapshot" survey aimed at finding resolved binary companions of the central stars of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe). Using WF/PC and WFPC2, we searched the fields of 113 PNe for stars whose close proximity to…
I list the 16 planetary nebulae (PNe) known to contain close-binary nuclei, and show that the nebulae generally have axisymmetric structures, including elliptical, bipolar, or ring morphologies. The orbital periods range from 2.7 hr to 16…
Common-envelope evolution is a stage in binary system evolution in which a giant star engulfs a companion. The standard energy formalism is an analytical framework to estimate the amount of energy transferred from the companion's shrinking…
Planetary Nebulae (PNe) are the result of heavy mass loss of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. They are understood in terms of Kwok's (1978) interacting-winds model as the product of the mass-loss history on the AGB and the central…
Observations suggest that many, if not all, post AGB systems evolve through an aspherical outflow phase. Such outflows require a sufficient engine rotational energy which binaries can provide. Via common envelope evolution, binaries can…