An optical spectrophotometric survey of abundances in Magellanic Cloud Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

Optical spectroscopic data for 71 Planetary Nebulae (PN) in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds have been analysed. The line fluxes have been used to determine nebular temperatures, densities, and the abundances of He, N, O, Ne, and Ar, relative to H. In our sample there are 12 nebulae with N/O≽0.5, resembling Peimbert's Type I PN; six low-excitation (LE) objects [1≼I(5007)/I(Hβ)≼4]; and four very-low-excitation (VLE) nebulae [I(Hβ)>I(5007)], similar to the Galactic VLE class. Mean abundances have been calculated for the nebulae not in these special groups. After correction for collisional excitation contributions to the nebular He I lines, PN in the SMC and LMC yield mass fractions of Y=0.249±0.025 and Y=0.258±0.015, respectively. Compared with PN in our own Galaxy, the abundances of Ne and Ar, which are the elements in our sample least affected by nucleosynthesis, are lower by 0.6 and 0.35 dex for the SMC and LMC respectively. The oxygen and neon abundances in the Magellanic Cloud PN are the same as those previously found for H II regions in the LMC and SMC, but the nitrogen in PN is enhanced by 0.9 and 1.0 dex in each galaxy, respectively. This is found to be consistent with the processing of all of the original carbon to nitrogen by the CN cycle, operating in the progenitor stars at the time of the first dredge-up. This process seems to have operated much more efficiently in the metal-poor Magellanic Clouds than in the Milky Way, in agreement with theoretical predictions. Five Wolf–Rayet central stars are detected in the sample (two SMC, three LMC). The frequency of occurrence of these helium-rich central stars in low- and medium-excitation PN (15 per cent) is very similar to that of helium-rich white dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood, suggesting that events at the end of the AGB phase may be reponsible for the observed fractions of helium- and hydrogen-rich white dwarf stars.