Imaging the elusive H-poor gas in planetary nebulae with large abundance discrepancy factors

García-Rojas, J.; Corradi, R. L. M.; Boffin, Henri M. J.; Monteiro, Hektor; Jones, David; Wesson, Roger; Cabrera-Lavers, A.; Rodríguez-Gil, P.
Bibliographical reference

Planetary Nebulae: Multi-Wavelength Probes of Stellar and Galactic Evolution, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 323, pp. 65-69

Advertised on:
10
2017
Number of authors
8
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
10
Refereed citations
7
Description
The discrepancy between abundances computed using optical recombination lines (ORLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs) is a major, unresolved problem with significant implications for the determination of chemical abundances throughout the Universe. In planetary nebulae (PNe), the most common explanation for the discrepancy is that two different gas phases coexist: a hot component with standard metallicity, and a much colder plasma enhanced in heavy elements. This dual nature is not predicted by mass loss theories, and direct observational support for it is still weak. In this work, we present our recent findings that demonstrate that the largest abundance discrepancies are associated with close binary central stars. OSIRIS-GTC tunable filter imaging of the faint O ii ORLs and MUSE-VLT deep 2D spectrophotometry confirm that O ii ORL emission is more centrally concentrated than that of [Oiii] CELs and, therefore, that the abundance discrepancy may be closely linked to binary evolution.