Related papers: Evolution of Planetary Nebulae I. An improved synt…
Extragalactic planetary nebulae (PNe) are detectable through relatively strong nebulous [OIII] emission and act as direct probes into the local stellar population. Because they have an apparently universal invariant magnitude cut-off, PNe…
Binary central stars have long been invoked to explain the vexing shapes of planetary nebulae (PNe) despite there being scant direct evidence to support this hypothesis. Modern large-scale surveys and improved observing strategies have…
The goal of the present study is twofold. First, we employ new HST/STIS spectra and photoionization modeling techniques to determine the progenitor masses of eight planetary nebulae (IC 2165, IC 3568, NGC 2440, NGC 3242, NGC 5315, NGC 5882,…
We summarize the principles and fundamental ingredients of evolutionary synthesis models, which are stellar evolution, stellar atmospheres, the IMF, star-formation histories, nebular emission, and also attenuation from the ISM and IGM. The…
The radiation field of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) is crucial for determining the physical conditions of planetary nebulae (PNe). Many studies in the literature model PNe using the blackbody approximation (bb) or…
Planetary nebulae (PN) are an essential tool in the study of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and galaxies of the Local Group, particularly the Magellanic Clouds. In this work, we present some recent results on the determination of…
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…
In this review we present a brief discussion on the observational evidence in favor of the presence of temperature variations, and conclude that many planetary nebulae show spatial temperature variations that are larger than those predicted…
Planetary Nebulae (PN) emit enormous amount of energy in several emission lines. Measuring the line-flux for PNe in a given stellar population, the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) can be compiled. Surveys of PNe revealed that…
Circumstellar envelopes (CEs) around evolved stars are an active site for the production of molecules. After evolving through the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), proto-planetary nebula (PPN), to planetary nebula (PN) phases, CEs ultimately…
Planetary nebulae represent a potential late stage of stellar evolution, however the central stars (CSPNe) are relatively faint and therefore pertinent information is merely available for <20% of the Galactic sample. Consequently, the…
Planetary Nebulae (PNs) in the Magellanic Clouds are studied to understand stellar populations and evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars in different chemical environments. Using HST observations from our LMC and SMC PN…
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…
We have carried out long-term (14 years) V and R photometric monitoring of 12 carbon-rich proto-planetary nebulae. The light and color curves display variability in all of them. The light curves are complex and suggest multiple periods,…
To understand how the circumstellar environments of post-AGB stars develop into planetary nebulae, we initiate a systematic study of 2D axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary nebula (pPN) with a modified ZEUS code. The aim…
Progress in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae (PN) has been restricted by a paucity of well-determined central star masses. To address this deficiency we aim to (i) significantly increase the number of known…
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…
We use radiation-hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the formation and synthetic X-ray emission of hot bubbles within planetary nebulae (PNe) driven by the powerful winds of H-deficient, [Wolf-Rayet]([WR])-type stars. Our models,…
The role of central star binarity in the shaping of planetary nebulae (PNe) has been the subject of much debate, with single stars believed to be incapable of producing the most highly collimated morphologies. However, observational support…
The Local Group contains a great number of dwarf irregulars and spheroidals, for which the spectroscopy of individual stars can be obtained. Thus, the chemical evolution of these galaxies can be traced, with the only need of finding…