The evolution of planetary nebulae^*

VI. On the chemical composition of the metal-poor PN G135.9+55.9

Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [csandin;rjacob;deschoenberner;msteffen;mmroth]@aip.de

Received: 4 February 2009
Accepted: 22 December 2009

Abstract

The actual value of the oxygen abundance of the metal-poor planetary nebula PN G135.9+55.9 has frequently been debated in the literature. We wanted to clarify the situation by making an improved abundance determination based on a study that includes both new accurate observations and new models. We made observations using the method of integral field spectroscopy with the PMAS instrument, and also used ultraviolet observations that were measured with HST-STIS. In our interpretation of the reduced and calibrated spectrum we used for the first time, recent radiation hydrodynamic models, which were calculated with several setups of scaled values of mean Galactic disk planetary nebula metallicities. For evolved planetary nebulae, such as PN G135.9+55.9, it turns out that departures from thermal equilibrium can be significant, leading to much lower electron temperatures, hence weaker emission in collisionally excited lines. Based on our time-dependent hydrodynamic models and the observed emission line [O iii] λ5007, we found a very low oxygen content of about 1/80 of the mean Galactic disk value. This result is consistent with emission line measurements in the ultraviolet wavelength range. The C/O and Ne/O ratios are unusually high and similar to those of another halo object, BoBn-1.