A search for magnetic fields on central stars in planetary nebulae

¹ Università di Catania Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Sezione Astrofisica, via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
e-mail: fleone@oact.inaf.it
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Received: 26 September 2013
Accepted: 20 January 2014

Abstract

Context. One of the possible mechanisms responsible for the panoply of shapes in planetary nebulae is the presence of magnetic fields that drive the ejection of ionized material during the proto-planetary nebula phase.

Aims. Therefore, detecting magnetic fields in such objects is of key importance for understanding their dynamics. Still, magnetic fields have not been detected using polarimetry in the central stars of planetary nebulae.

Methods. Circularly polarized light spectra have been obtained with the Focal Reducer and Low Dispersion Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory and the Intermediate dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System at the William Herschel Telescope. Twentythree planetary nebulae that span very different morphology and evolutionary stages have been selected. Most of central stars have been observed at different rotation phases to point out evidence of magnetic variability.

Results. In this paper, we present the result of two observational campaigns aimed to detect and measure the magnetic field in the central stars of planetary nebulae on the basis of low resolution spectropolarimetry. In the limit of the adopted method, we can state that large scale fields of kG order are not hosted on the central star of planetary nebulae.