Herschel/HIFI observations of high-J CO transitions in the protoplanetary nebula CRL618

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel/HIFI to observe high-J CO lines in the protoplanetary nebula CRL618, revealing detailed excitation conditions and dynamics of its components, including hot bipolar outflows and shells, with implications for nebular evolution.

Contribution

First high-resolution Herschel/HIFI observations of high-J CO lines in CRL618, providing new insights into the nebula's excitation conditions and kinematic structure.

Findings

Fast bipolar outflow is much hotter than previously estimated.

The central dense component has very low expansion velocity.

The fast outflow is likely shock-accelerated and still hot.

Abstract

We performed Herschel/HIFI observations of several CO lines in the far-infrared/sub-mm in the protoplanetary nebula CRL618. The high spectral resolution provided by HIFI allows measurement of the line profiles. Since the dynamics and structure of the nebula is well known from mm-wave interferometric maps, it is possible to identify the contributions of the different nebular components (fast bipolar outflows, double shells, compact slow shell) to the line profiles. The observation of these relatively high-energy transitions allows an accurate study of the excitation conditions in these components, particularly in the warm ones, which cannot be properly studied from the low-energy lines. The 12CO J=16-15, 10-9, and 6-5 lines are easily detected in this source. 13CO J=10-9 and 6-5 are also detected. Wide profiles showing spectacular line wings have been found, particularly in 12CO 16-15. Other lines observed simultaneously with CO are also shown. Our analysis of the CO high-J transitions, when compared with the existing models, confirms the very low expansion velocity of the central, dense component, which probably indicates that the shells ejected during the last AGB phases were driven by radiation pressure under a regime of maximum transfer of momentum. No contribution of the diffuse halo found from mm-wave data is identified in our spectra, because of its low temperature. We find that the fast bipolar outflow is quite hot, much hotter than previously estimated; for instance, gas flowing at 100 km/s must have a temperature higher than ~ 200 K. Probably, this very fast outflow, with a kinematic age < 100 yr, has been accelerated by a shock and has not yet cooled down. The double empty shell found from mm-wave mapping must also be relatively hot, in agreement with the previous estimate.