Discovery of Eclipsing Binary Central Stars in the Planetary Nebulae M 3-16, H 2-29 and M 2-19

TL;DR

This study identifies three new eclipsing binary central stars in planetary nebulae using OGLE data, enabling direct mass and dimension measurements to improve understanding of planetary nebulae evolution.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery of three new eclipsing binary central stars in planetary nebulae, expanding the sample for direct mass and size determination.

Findings

Three new eclipsing binary CSPN identified

Confirmed through spectroscopy and light-curve analysis

Provides data for future mass and dimension measurements

Abstract

Progress in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae (PN) has been restricted by a paucity of well-determined central star masses. To address this deficiency we aim to (i) significantly increase the number of known eclipsing binary central stars of PN (CSPN), and subsequently (ii) directly obtain their masses and absolute dimensions by combining their light-curve parameters with planned radial velocity data. Using photometric data from the third phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) we have searched for periodic variability in a large sample of PN towards the Galactic Bulge using Fourier and phase-dispersion minimisation techniques. Among some dozen periodically variable CSPN found, we report here on three new eclipsing binaries: M 3-16, H 2-29 and M 2-19. We present images, confirmatory spectroscopy and light-curves of the systems.