Variability in Protoplanetary Nebulae: IX. Evidence for Evolution in a Decade

TL;DR

This study investigates variability and potential period changes in protoplanetary nebulae over a decade, providing new period measurements and evidence for stellar evolution and possible companions.

Contribution

It offers new photometric data, updated periods, and evidence of period evolution in protoplanetary nebulae, highlighting stellar evolution at the lower mass range.

Findings

Detected possible period change in two stars.

Observed brightness trends likely due to circumstellar dust.

Identified potential orbital period indicating a companion.

Abstract

We have carried out a new photometric V,Rc study of 12 protoplanetary nebulae, objects in the short-lived transition between the AGB and PN phases of stellar evolution. These had been the subjects of an earlier study, using data from 1994-2007, that found that all 12 varied periodically, with pulsation periods in the range of ~38 to ~150 days. They are all carbon-rich, with F-G spectral types. We combined our new (2008-2018) data with publicly-available ASAS-SN data and determined new periods for their variability. The older and newer period values were compared to investigate evidence of period change, for which there is theoretical support that it might be detectable in a decade or two in some cases. Such a detection is challenging since the light curves are complicated, with multiple periods, changing amplitudes, and evidence of shocks. Nevertheless, we found one, and possibly two, such cases, which are associated with the higher temperature stars in the sample (7250 and 8000 K). These results are most consistent with the evolution of stars at the lower end of the mass range of carbon stars, ~1.5-2 M(sun). Several of the stars show longer-term trends of increasing (six cases) or decreasing (one case) brightness, which we think most likely due to changes in the circumstellar dust opacity. There is one case of a possible ~1.8 yr period in addition to the shorter pulsation. This is interpreted as possible evidence of an orbiting companion.