Determination of Planetary Nebulae angular diameters from radio continuum Spectral Energy Distribution modeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new radio continuum SED fitting technique to accurately determine the angular sizes of planetary nebulae, including those obscured in optical wavelengths, leveraging upcoming high-resolution radio surveys.

Contribution

It presents a novel method for measuring planetary nebulae sizes using radio SED modeling, applicable to faint and obscured objects, enhancing consistency across populations.

Findings

Robust angular size determinations comparable to optical/radio methods.

Effective for unresolved and heavily obscured planetary nebulae.

Potential for application across large survey datasets.

Abstract

Powerful new, high resolution, high sensitivity, multi-frequency, wide-field radio surveys such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) are emerging. They will offer fresh opportunities to undertake new determinations of useful parameters for various kinds of extended astrophysical phenomena. Here, we consider specific application to angular size determinations of Planetary Nebulae (PNe) via a new radio continuum Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting technique. We show that robust determinations of angular size can be obtained, comparable to the best optical and radio observations but with the potential for consistent application across the population. This includes unresolved and/or heavily obscured PNe that are extremely faint or even non-detectable in the optical.