Toward Better Simulations of Planetary Nebulae Luminosity Functions

Méndez, R. H.; Teodorescu, A. M.; Schönberner, D.; Jacob, R.; Steffen, M.

doi:10.1086/588808

Cited by 38 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Some success in reproducing the observed PNLF has been achieved by incorporating the latest hydrodynamic, timedependent models (Schönberner et al 2007;Méndez et al 2008). In these simulations the emphasis is on modelling the PNLF rather than explaining it and an alternative explanation for [O III]-bright PNe is still required.…”

Section: Planetary Nebulaementioning

confidence: 99%

The VMC survey

Cioni

Clementini

Girardi

et al. 2011

A&A

312

304

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Context. The new VISual and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has started operations. Over its first five years it will be collecting data for six public surveys, one of which is the near-infrared Y JK s VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). This survey comprises the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small Magellanic Cloud, the Magellanic Bridge connecting the two galaxies and two fields in the Magellanic Stream. Aims. This paper provides an overview of the VMC survey strategy and presents first science results. The main goals of the VMC survey are the determination of the spatially-resolved star-formation history and the three-dimensional structure of the Magellanic system. The VMC survey is therefore designed to reach stars as faint as the oldest main sequence turn-off point and to constrain the mean magnitude of pulsating variables such as RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids. This paper focuses on observations of VMC fields in the LMC obtained between November 2009 and March 2010. These observations correspond to a completeness of 7% of the planned LMC fields. Methods. The VMC data are comprised of multi-epoch observations which are executed following specific time constraints. The data were reduced using the VISTA Data Flow System pipeline with source catalogues, including astrometric and photometric corrections, produced and made available via the VISTA Science Archive. The VMC data will be released to the astronomical community following the European Southern Observatory's Public Survey policy. The analysis of the data shows that the sensitivity in each wave band agrees with expectations. Uncertainties and completeness of the data are also derived. Results. The first science results, aimed at assessing the scientific quality of the VMC data, include an overview of the distribution of stars in colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams, the detection of planetary nebulae and stellar clusters, and the K s band light-curves of variable stars. Conclusions. The VMC survey represents a tremendous improvement, in spatial resolution and sensitivity, on previous panoramic observations of the Magellanic system in the near-infrared, providing a powerful complement to deep observations at other wavelengths.

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Section: Planetary Nebulaementioning

confidence: 99%

The VMC survey

Cioni

Clementini

Girardi

et al. 2011

A&A

312

304

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“…Some galaxies, like the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC, Jacoby & de Marco 2002, hereafter JM02) present a dip in the PNLF, others do not. The details of the interpretation of this dip vary A&A 575, A1 (2015) among authors, but in essence it is considered to be a result of the rapid decline in luminosity of the most massive central stars descending the white dwarf cooling track not being compensated by the presence of PNe with less massive central stars (Jacoby & de Marco 2002;Marigo et al 2004;Méndez et al 2008). Thus, the presence or absence of a dip in the PNLF can be a signature of the star formation history of those stellar populations that give rise to the PNe detected at present in the galaxies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A two-mode planetary nebula luminosity function

Rodríguez-González

Hernández-Martínez

Esquivel

et al. 2015

A&A

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Context. We propose a new planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) that includes two populations in the distribution. Our PNLF is a direct extension of the canonical function proposed by Jacoby et al. (1987), in order to avoid problems related with the histogram construction, it is cast in terms of cumulative functions. Aims. We are interested in recovering the shape of the faint part of the PNLF in a consistent manner, for galaxies with and without a dip in their PNLFs. Methods. The parameters for the two-mode PNLF are obtained with a genetic algorithm, which obtains a best fit to the PNLF varying all of the parameters simultaneously in a broad parameter space. Results. We explore a sample of nine galaxies with various Hubble types and construct their PNLF. All of the irregular galaxies, except one, are found to be consistent with a two-mode population, while the situation is less clear for ellipticals and spirals.For the case of NGC 6822, we show that the two-mode PNLF is consistent with previous studies of the star formation history within that galaxy. Our results support two episodes of star formation, in which the second episode is significantly stronger.

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“…If old, metal-rich populations show a tendency to populate the bright end of the PNLF with very strong 5007 PNs, this might help to somehow relax the requirement of relatively high central star masses, which has always been a problem (see for example Méndez et al 2008). Again this emphasizes how important it will be to obtain better individual PN spectra in many distant galaxies to better understand the PNLF.…”

Section: The Intensities Of [O Iii] 4959 and 5007mentioning

confidence: 99%