Central-star extinctions towards planetary nebulae

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Csukai, Alexander, Zijlstra, Albert A., McDonald, Iain, De Marco, Orsola
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Csukai, Alexander
Zijlstra, Albert A.
McDonald, Iain
De Marco, Orsola
author_facet Csukai, Alexander
Zijlstra, Albert A.
McDonald, Iain
De Marco, Orsola
contents Planetary nebulae trace the hottest and most luminous phase of evolution of solar-type stars. We use these hot, bright stars to investigate extinctions towards a complete sample of 262 confirmed PNe with large angular diameters, which have the most reliable photometry and hottest central stars. For 162 of these PNe, we identify central stars, produce spectral energy distributions from survey data using PySSED, then fit reddened model spectra to the observed photometry to obtain extinctions accurate down to $E(B-V)$ of $\pm 0.02$ mag. The fitting is performed by Nelder-Mead $χ^2$ minimisation, with uncertainties evaluated through MCMC. The catalogue of stellar temperatures is updated for our sample for the calculation of luminosities. The extinctions agree well with interstellar extinction. We find evidence of circumnebular extinction for one PN, and evaluate its effect on the planetary nebulae luminosity function. Four new close binaries are identified from the spectral energy distributions. The binary fraction in the full sample is between 23% and 36%. We use our compiled data to evaluate the quality of the central star identifications in the literature. Three objects in our sample have previously been classified as post-RGB systems but we find that their parameters may also be consistent with post-AGB evolution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_10621
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Central-star extinctions towards planetary nebulae
Csukai, Alexander
Zijlstra, Albert A.
McDonald, Iain
De Marco, Orsola
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Planetary nebulae trace the hottest and most luminous phase of evolution of solar-type stars. We use these hot, bright stars to investigate extinctions towards a complete sample of 262 confirmed PNe with large angular diameters, which have the most reliable photometry and hottest central stars. For 162 of these PNe, we identify central stars, produce spectral energy distributions from survey data using PySSED, then fit reddened model spectra to the observed photometry to obtain extinctions accurate down to $E(B-V)$ of $\pm 0.02$ mag. The fitting is performed by Nelder-Mead $χ^2$ minimisation, with uncertainties evaluated through MCMC. The catalogue of stellar temperatures is updated for our sample for the calculation of luminosities. The extinctions agree well with interstellar extinction. We find evidence of circumnebular extinction for one PN, and evaluate its effect on the planetary nebulae luminosity function. Four new close binaries are identified from the spectral energy distributions. The binary fraction in the full sample is between 23% and 36%. We use our compiled data to evaluate the quality of the central star identifications in the literature. Three objects in our sample have previously been classified as post-RGB systems but we find that their parameters may also be consistent with post-AGB evolution.
title Central-star extinctions towards planetary nebulae
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10621