Gas and Dust in Galactic Planetary Nebulae at Sub-Solar Metallicity
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Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Gas and Dust in Galactic Planetary Nebulae at Sub-Solar Metallicity Thesis How to cite: Pagomenos, George (2019). Gas and Dust in Galactic Planetary Nebulae at Sub-Solar Metallicity. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2018 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000e4a2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wKDTzpp87LQPAbsS0OZ45eT59LQXUmjX/view?usp=sharing Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Gas and dust in Galactic planetary nebulae at sub-solar metallicity George James Steven Pagomenos School of Physical Sciences, Faculty of STEM The Open University This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 Abstract Planetary nebulae are the final phases of evolution for low- to intermediate-mass stars(∼ 0.8– 8 M⊙). They consist of a central star surrounded predominantly by a circumstellar envelope containing the products of nuclear processing, and a photodissociation region containing dust and molecules. These include silicates and large organic molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are ubiquitous throughout the Universe, and fullerenes, which are the largest molecules to be firmly detected in space. All of this material coasts away from the central star, causing enrichment of the interstellar medium. Although there have been significant advances in studies of this circumstellar material, we still do not fully understand how the metallicity (i.e. the abundance of elements heavier than helium) of the local environment affects the dust composition around these stars, or the processes that govern the formation and evolution of these large organic molecules. This thesis presents a series of studies in which the abundances and dust composition around planetary nebulae are characterised in the low metallicity regions of the Milky Way, with use of data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and SOFIA. These include investigations into the metallicity and dust content of planetary nebulae in the outer thin disk and the halo of the Galaxy, and the physical conditions in which large organic molecules form. I find that the outer regions of the Galactic disk have a lower metallicity than thesolar neighbourhood, and that regions of low metallicity favour carbon-rich dust production over oxygen-rich dust (i.e. silicates), except for within the Galactic halo. These regions show a greater diversity of carbonaceous material than observed towards the Galactic bulge and in the solar neighbourhood. Fullerenes are preferentially formed in environments with low hydrogen density. Acknowledgements Firstly, I could not have been able to chase my dream of being a scientist if it wasn’t for my family. In particular, I would like to thank Mum, Dad, Gran, Mike, Yiayia, Pappou, Isabel, Tony, Nick and Chris for all their love and support over the years. I am incredibly fortunate to have worked with my two supervisors, Jeronimo Bernard- Salas and Helen Fraser. Jeronimo, thank you for providing me with the incredible opportunity to carry out this research, and with another to get involved with the JWST Evolved Stars working group. You have always pushed me to strive to do better, and your support and patience has always been appreciated. Helen, thank you for keeping me on track, and for providing a positive outlook when I needed perspective. You have both been amazing. To everyone else with whom I have collaborated, namely Jan Cami, Els Peeters, Greg Sloan, Albert Zijlstra and the late Stuart Pottasch: thank you for everything, it has genuinely been wonderful working with all of you. I would also like to thank Maria Lugaro and Carolyn Doherty for inviting me to give a seminar talk at the Konkoly Observatory, Harriet Dinerstein for the inspiring scientific conversations, all members of the Astrochemistry Group and Astronomy Journal Club at the Open University with whom I have been able to share ideas, Geoff Bradshaw for the IT assistance, and Stephen Serjeant, Nicolas Peretto and Judith Croston for reading this thesis and assessing my viva. Thanks to Philip, for being like a brother; Kieran, for the wine evenings and the con- versations in which we set the world to rights; Jack and Tania, for hosting us in Japan for the week; Laura and David, for helping me take the next steps in my career and generally being awesome people; Lawrence, Ashley and Paul for being brilliant flatmates; everyone in the DPS House Band; the Goat Army (you know who you are); Rachel, Mark, Helen and vi Graham for the semi-regular chats over coffees; and the rest of the “DeanSoc” crew: Dean, Joe, Meredith, Heidi, Aaron and Andy. Thanks also to Helen, Amit, Dan, Catherine, Natalia, Olivier, Paul, Pam, Calum, James, Jana, Ayo, Brendan, Maria, Vincent, Pete, Rhian, Amy, George, Aleksi, Sabrina, Feargus, Tom, Candice, Matt, Anton, Yasmin, Mike, Joe, Chris, Joanna and Alex; and anyone else who has been an essential component of my past few years but I have regrettably forgotten to mention here. And last but certainly not least, I wish to thank my partner of almost seven years, Anastasia. I am so lucky to have you in my life. Table of contents List of figures xii List of tables xxi 1 Introduction1 1.1 Low- to intermediate-mass stellar evolution . .2 1.1.1 The life cycle of a star . .2 1.1.2 Mixing episodes . .5 1.2 Dust . .6 1.2.1 Carbon-rich dust . .7 1.2.2 Oxygen-rich dust . 12 1.2.3 Dual-dust chemistry . 14 1.3 Planetary nebulae . 14 1.3.1 Morphology . 15 1.3.2 Shocks . 17 1.3.3 Photodissociation regions . 19 1.4 Current status . 22 1.4.1 Influence of metallicity on dust composition . 22 1.4.2 Diversity of large organic molecules . 24 1.5 Thesis overview . 26 2 Methods of data reduction and analysis 27 2.1 Spectroscopy . 27 viii Table of contents 2.1.1 Atomic spectroscopy . 28 2.1.2 Molecular spectroscopy . 33 2.2 Infrared emission lines . 36 2.2.1 Metallicity and abundance . 36 2.2.2 Probing physical conditions . 38 2.3 Infrared airborne and space telescopes . 40 2.3.1 History . 40 2.3.2 The Spitzer Space Telescope ..................... 42 2.3.3 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) . 43 2.4 Data processing . 47 2.4.1 Spectroscopic Modelling Analysis and Reduction Tool (SMART) . 47 2.4.2 FLUXER . 50 2.5 Summary . 52 3 Neon, sulphur and argon abundances of planetary nebulae in the sub-solar metallicity Galactic anti-centre 54 3.1 Introduction . 54 3.2 Data . 57 3.2.1 Observations . 57 3.2.2 Data reduction and extraction . 59 3.3 Analysis . 61 3.3.1 Ionic abundances . 61 3.3.2 Line flux measurements . 61 3.3.3 Extinction corrections . 62 3.3.4 Hb intensity . 64 3.3.5 Electron densities and temperatures . 66 3.3.6 Elemental abundances . 69 3.3.7 Galactocentric distances . 84 3.4 Discussion . 85 Table of contents ix 3.4.1 Comparison of abundances with literature . 85 3.4.2 The abundance gradient . 87 3.4.3 a-process elements . 90 3.5 Summary . 93 4 Dust composition of PNe in the Galactic anti-centre 95 4.1 Introduction . 95 4.2 Sample overview . 97 4.3 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) . 99 4.3.1 Profiles . 99 4.3.2 Ionisation fractions . 103 4.4 PAH decomposition . 104 4.4.1 Gaussian curve fitting . 105 4.4.2 Components . 105 4.4.3 Decomposition analysis . 107 4.5 Silicon carbide . 113 4.6 Fullerenes . 115 4.7 The 30 mm feature . 117 4.8 Silicates . 119 4.9 Featureless spectra . 120 4.10 The link between dust composition and metallicity . 121 4.11 Conclusions . 123 5 Abundances and dust compositions of planetary nebulae from the Galactic halo126 5.1 Introduction . 126 5.2 Data . 128 5.2.1 Sample . 128 5.2.2 Data handling and reduction . 133 5.3 Abundances . 133 x Table of contents 5.4 Dust . 138 5.5 Discussion . 142 5.5.1 Comparisons with other Galactic PNe . 142 5.5.2 The Sagittarius stream . 144 5.5.3 Shocks and dust destruction . 146 5.6 Summary . 148 6 Investigating the astrophysical environments of fullerene emission around PNe 150 6.1 Introduction . 150 6.2 Data acquisition and handling . 153 6.3 Analysis . 153 6.3.1 Intensity maps . 156 6.3.2 Line intensity offsets . 159 6.3.3 Line velocities . 160 6.4 PDR modelling . 164 6.4.1 Model description . 164 6.4.2 Inputs . 165 6.4.3 Analysis of model outputs . 166 6.5 Discussion and conclusions . 169 7 Conclusions and future work 171 7.1 Summary of findings . ..