The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function: Pieces of the Puzzle
Abstract
Extragalactic surveys in the emission line of [O III] 5007 have provided us with the absolute line strengths of large, homogeneous sets of planetary nebulae. These data have been used to address a host of problems, from the measurement of the extragalactic distance scale, to the study of stellar populations. I review our current understanding of the [O III] planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF), and discuss some of the physical processes that effect its structure. I also describe the features of the H-alpha PNLF, a function that, upon first glance, looks similar to the [O III] PNLF, but which includes a very different set of objects. Finally, I discuss recent measurements of alpha, the number of PNe found in a stellar population, normalized to that population's bolometric luminosity. I show that, contrary to expectations, the values of alpha found in actively star-forming spirals is essentially the same as those measured in late-type elliptical and lenticular systems. I discuss how this result sheds light on the physics of the planetary nebula phenomenon.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0909.4356,
title = {The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function: Pieces of the Puzzle},
author = {Robin Ciardullo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.4356},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
7 pages, including 7 figures; presentation at the workshop on the Legacies of the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg H-alpha Planetary Nebula project, accepted for publication in PASA