Challenges faced by current Galactic planetary nebula surveys

TL;DR

This paper reviews the challenges in current Galactic planetary nebula surveys, emphasizing the limitations of optical and infrared methods and the importance of multi-wavelength approaches and Gaia data for accurate demographic understanding.

Contribution

It highlights the need for robust, volume-limited surveys of Galactic PNe and discusses the limitations of current optical and infrared surveys in understanding their demographics.

Findings

Optical surveys have significantly increased known PNe but face limitations.

Infrared surveys encounter challenges similar to optical methods.

Gaia data will improve volume-limited PNe samples.

Abstract

Determining the demographics of the Galactic planetary nebula (PN) population is an important goal to further our understanding of this intriguing phase of stellar evolution. The Galactic population has more than doubled in number over the last 15 years, particularly from narrowband \ha\ surveys along the plane. In this review I will summarise these results, with emphasis on the time interval since the last IAU Symposium. These primarily optical surveys are not without their limitations and new surveys for PNe in the infrared similarly face a number of challenges. I will discuss the need for multi-wavelength approaches to discovery and analysis. The desire to have accurate volume-limited samples of Galactic PNe at our disposal is emphasised, which will be impacted with new data from the Gaia satellite mission. We need robust surveys of PNe and their central stars, especially volume-limited surveys, in order to clarify and quantify their evolutionary pathways.