Chemical evolution of the Magellanic Clouds based on planetary nebulae

TL;DR

This study uses planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds to analyze their chemical evolution, revealing insights into nucleosynthesis, star formation history, and metallicity changes over time.

Contribution

It provides a large database of chemical abundances in planetary nebulae and derives the age-metallicity relation for the SMC, highlighting recent star formation activity.

Findings

Large database of ~300 planetary nebulae with element abundances

Derived age-metallicity relation for the SMC

Evidence of a star formation burst in the last 2-3 Gyr

Abstract

Planetary nebulae (PN) are an essential tool in the study of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and galaxies of the Local Group, particularly the Magellanic Clouds. In this work, we present some recent results on the determination of chemical abundances from PN in the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, and compare these results with data from our own Galaxy and other galaxies in the Local Group. As a result of our continuing long term program, we have a large database comprising about 300 objects for which reliable abundances of several elements from He to Ar have been obtained. Such data can be used to derive constraints to the nucleosynthesis processes in the progenitor stars in galaxies of different metallicities. We also investigate the time evolution of the oxygen abundances in the SMC by deriving the properties of the PN progenitor stars, which include their masses and ages. We have then obtained an age-metallicity relation taking into account both oxygen and [Fe/H] abundances. We show that these results have an important consequence on the star formation rate of the SMC, in particular by suggesting a star formation burst in the last 2-3 Gyr.