Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae

Details Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae

2008-05-15

arxiv.org/abs/0805.2198v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Scientific paper

10.1051/0004-6361:200809381

We present an analysis of physical conditions in planetary nebulae (PNe) in terms of collisionally-excited line (CEL) and optical-recombination line (ORL) profiles. We aim to investigate whether line profiles could be used to study the long-standing CEL/ORL abundance-discrepancy problem in nebular astrophysics. Using 1D photoionization models and their assumed velocity fields, we simulate the line profiles of various ionic species. We attempt to use our model to account for the observed CEL and ORL profiles. As a case study we present a detailed study of line profiles of the low-excitation planetary nebula (PN) IC 418. Our results show that the profiles of classical temperature and density diagnostic lines, such as [O III] 4363,5007, [S II] 6716,6731, and [Ar IV] 4711,4740, provide a powerful tool to study nebular temperature and density variations. The method enables the CEL/ORL abundance-discrepancy problem to be studied more rigorously than before. A pure photoionization model of a chemically-homogeneous nebula seems to explain the observed disagreements in the profiles for the [O III] 4363 and the 5007 lines, but cannot account for the differences between the [O III] CELs and the O II ORLs. We also investigate the temperature and density variations in the velocity space of a sample of PNe, which are found to be insignificant.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Emission line profiles as a probe of physical conditions in planetary nebulae will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-509115