Bibcode
Fang, X.; García-Benito, Rubén; Guerrero, Martín A.; Zhang, Yong; Liu, Xiaowei; Morisset, Christophe; Karakas, Amanda I.; Miller Bertolami, Marcelo M.; Yuan, Haibo; Cabrera-Lavers, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 853, Issue 1, article id. 50, 33 pp. (2018).
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2018
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Description
We report deep spectroscopy of 10 planetary nebulae (PNe) in the
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC).
Our targets reside in different regions of M31, including halo streams
and the dwarf satellite M32, and kinematically deviate from the extended
disk. The temperature-sensitive [O III] λ4363 line is observed in
all PNe. For four PNe, the GTC spectra extend beyond 1 μm, enabling
the explicit detection of the [S III] λ6312 and
λλ9069, 9531 lines and thus determination of the [S III]
temperature. Abundance ratios are derived and generally consistent with
AGB model predictions. Our PNe probably all evolved from low-mass (<2
M ⊙) stars, as analyzed with the most up-to-date post-AGB
evolutionary models, and their main-sequence ages are mostly
∼2–5 Gyr. Compared to the underlying, smooth, metal-poor halo
of M31, our targets are uniformly metal rich ([O/H] ≳ ‑0.4),
and seem to resemble the younger population in the stream. We thus
speculate that our halo PNe formed in the Giant Stream’s
progenitor through extended star formation. Alternatively, they might
have formed from the same metal-rich gas as did the outer-disk PNe but
were displaced into their present locations as a result of galactic
interactions. These interpretations are, although speculative,
qualitatively in line with the current picture, as inferred from
previous wide-field photometric surveys, that M31's halo is the result
of complex interactions and merger processes. The behavior of the N/O of
the combined sample of the outer-disk and our halo/substructure PNe
signifies that hot bottom burning might actually occur at <3 M
⊙ but careful assessment is needed.
Based on observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, installed
at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias, in the island of La Palma. The
observations presented in this paper are associated with GTC programs
#GTC66-16A and #GTC25-16B.
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Martín
López Corredoira