Planetary Nebulae of the Large Magellanic Cloud II: the connection with the progenitors' properties

TL;DR

This study investigates how the properties of planetary nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud relate to their progenitors' mass and metallicity, revealing that higher-mass progenitors produce more dust and influence nebular gas content.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the connection between progenitor star properties and dust production in planetary nebulae, combining stellar evolution models with spectral analysis.

Findings

Dust-to-gas ratio increases with progenitor mass in carbon-rich PNe.

Higher-mass progenitors produce more efficient dust formation.

Gas mass decreases as dust production increases in the nebulae.

Abstract

The study of planetary nebulae (PNe) offers the opportunity of evaluating the efficiency of the dust production mechanism during the very late asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phases. We study the relationship between the properties of PNe, particularly the gas and dust content, with the mass and metallicity of the progenitor stars, to understand how dust production works in the late AGB phases, and to shed new light on the physical processes occurring to the stars and the material in their surroundings since the departure from the AGB until the PN phase. We consider a sample of 9 PNe in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 7 out of which characterized by the presence of carbonaceous dust, the remaining 2 with silicates. For these stars the masses and the metallicity of the progenitor stars were estimated. We combine results from stellar evolution and dust formation modelling with those coming from the analysis of the spectral energy distribution, to find the relation between the dust and gas mass of the PNe considered and the The physical properties of carbon-rich PNe are influenced by the mass of the progenitor star. Specifically, the dust-to-gas ratio in the nebula increases from 5x10^{-4}to 6x10^{-3} as the progenitor star's mass increases from approximately 0.9Msun to 2Msun. This change is partly influenced by the effective temperature of the PNe, and it occurs because higher-mass carbon stars are more efficient at producing dust. Consequently, as the progenitor's mass increases, the gas mass of the PNe decreases, since the larger amounts of dust lead to greater effects from radiation pressure, which pushes the gas outwards. No meaningful conclusions can be drawn by the study of the PNe with silicate-type dust, because the sub-sample is made up of 2 PNe only, one of which is almost dust-free.