Related papers: Binary stars as the key to understanding planetary…
It is now clear that a binary evolutionary pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of all planetary nebulae, with some authors even going so far as to claim that binarity may be a near requirement for the formation of an…
It is now clear that central star binarity plays a key role in the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae, with a significant fraction playing host to close-binary central stars which have survived one or more common envelope…
Close-binary central stars of planetary nebulae offer a unique tool with which to study the critical and yet poorly understood common-envelope phase of binary stellar evolution. Furthermore, as the nebula itself is thought to comprise the…
Planetary Nebulae represent a powerful window into the evolution of low-intermediate mass stars that have undergone extensive mass-loss. The nebula manifests itself in an extremely wide variety of shapes, but exactly how the mass lost is…
It is now clear that a binary formation pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of planetary nebulae, and this increased sample of known binaries means that we are now in a position to begin to constrain their influence on the…
It is now clear that a binary pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of planetary nebulae, and the continually increasing sample of known central binaries means that we are now in a position to begin to use these systems to…
Close binary central stars of planetary nebulae are key in constraining the poorly-understood common-envelope phase of evolution, which in turn is critical in understanding the formation of a wide-range of astrophysical phenomena (including…
Only a handful of binary central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) are known today, due to the difficulty of detecting their companions. Preliminary results from radial velocity surveys, however, seem to indicate that binarity plays a…
Binary stars are as common as single stars. Binary stars are of immense importance to astrophysicists because that they allow us to determine the masses of the stars independent of their distances. They are the cornerstone of the…
In this review/tutorial we explore planetary nebulae as a stage in the evolution of low-to-intermediate-mass stars, as major contributors to the mass and chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium, and as astrophysical laboratories. We…
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…
The young planetary nebulae play an important role in stellar evolution when intermediate- to low-mass stars (0.8 $\sim$ 8 M$_\odot$) evolve from the proto-planetary nebulae phase to the planetary nebulae phase. Many young planetary nebulae…
The increase in discovered close binary central stars of planetary nebulae is leading to a sufficiently large sample to begin to make broader conclusions about the effect of close binary stars on common envelope evolution and planetary…
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…
We review the evolution of our understanding of the planetary nebulae phenomenon and their place in the scheme of stellar evolution. The historical steps leading to our current understanding of central star evolution and nebular formation…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
Young planetary nebulae play an important role in stellar evolution when intermediate- to low-mass stars (0.8 ~ 8 M) evolve from the proto-planetary nebulae phase to the planetary nebulae phase. Many young planetary nebulae display distinct…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are circumstellar gas ejected during an intense mass-losing phase in the the lives of asymptotic giant branch stars. PNe have a stunning variety of shapes, most of which are not spherically symmetric. The debate over…
In this review I present the binary model for the shaping of planetary nebulae (PNe) as I view it, in the context of historical evolution of other models for the shaping of PNe over more than 30 years. In describing the binary model, I…
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…