Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2005-01-10
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 358 (2005) 457-467
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08810.x
Electron temperatures derived from the \ion{He}{1} recombination line ratios, designated $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{He}{1}), are presented for 48 planetary nebulae (PNe). We study the effect that temperature fluctuations inside nebulae have on the $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{He}{1}) value. We show that a comparison between $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{He}{1}) and the electron temperature derived from the Balmer jump of the \ion{H}{1} recombination spectrum, designated $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{H}{1}), provides an opportunity to discriminate between the paradigms of a chemically homogeneous plasma with temperature and density variations, and a two-abundance nebular model with hydrogen-deficient material embedded in diffuse gas of a ``normal'' chemical composition (i.e. $\sim$ solar), as the possible causes of the dichotomy between the abundances that are deduced from collisionally excited lines to those deduced from recombination lines. We find that $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{He}{1}) values are significantly lower than $T_{\rm e}$(\ion{H}{1}) values, with an average difference of $
Liu Xiao-Wei
Liu Ya-Ying
Rubin Robert H.
Zhang Yajing
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