Abstract
In the quest to understand the origin of Planetary Nebula (PN) morphology, correlations have been sought between the nebular shapes and the evolutionary status of the central stars. Several of the mechanisms proposed to explain asymmetric shapes have a direct link with the central star's evolutionary status. Among the possible mechanisms invoked to produce asymmetric PNs, stellar rotation is certainly an effective one, as several hydrodynamics models have shown. In this work we present Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) UV spectra of a sample of bright LMC PNs and their central stars. LMC PNs distances are known, thus the observed characteristics of the stars translate into absolute physical quantities readily, and provide the safest dataset for theory-observation comparisons. We are planing to fit stellar models to the observed spectra using black-body SEDs and synthetic photometry to estimate stellar temperature and reddening. We are going to use the stellar evolutionary tracks to compare the post-AGB age with the dynamical age from the nebula. P-Cygni profiles will be analyzed in order to determine an approximation of the mass loss rate. Stellar characteristics will be related to the morphology of the nebulae observed by our group with HST STIS optical slitless spectroscopy.
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