Close Binaries and the Abundance Discrepancy Problem in Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

Motivated by the recent establishment of a connection between central star binarity and extreme abundance discrepancies in planetary nebulae, we have carried out a spectroscopic survey targeting planetary nebula with binary central stars and previously unmeasured recombination line abundances. We have discovered seven new extreme abundance discrepancies, confirming that binarity is key to understanding the abundance discrepancy problem. Analysis of all 15 objects with a binary central star and a measured abundance discrepancy suggests a cut-off period of about 1.15 days, below which extreme abundance discrepancies are found.

Keywords

• planetary nebulae
• binarity
• abundances
• stellar evolution