A NEW GRID OF SYNTHETIC SPECTRA FOR THE ANALYSIS OF [WC]-TYPE CENTRAL
STARS OF PLANETARY NEBULAE
G. R. Keller, J. E. Herald, L. Bianchi, W. J. Maciel, R. C. Bohlin
Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 418, 705-728 (2011)
We present a comprehensive grid of synthetic stellar-atmosphere spectra, suitable for the analysis
of high resolution spectra of hydrogen-deficient post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-
AGB) objects hotter than 50000 K, migrating along the constant luminosity branch of the
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). The grid was calculated with CMFGEN, a state-of-theart
stellar atmosphere code that properly treats the stellar winds, accounting for expanding
atmospheres in non-LTE, line blanketing, soft X-rays, and wind clumping. We include many
ionic species that have been previously neglected. Our uniform set of models fills a niche in
an important parameter regime, i.e., high effective temperatures, high surface gravities, and
a range of mass-loss values. The grid constitutes a general tool to facilitate determination of
the stellar parameters and line identifications and to interpret morphological changes of the
stellar spectrum as stars evolve through the central star of planetary nebula (CSPN) phase.We
show the effect of major physical parameters on spectral lines in the far-UV, UV, and optical
regimes.We analyse UV and far-UV spectra of the central star of NGC 6905 using the grid to
constrain its physical parameters, and proceed to further explore other parameters not taken
in consideration in the grid. This application shows that the grid can be used to constrain the
main photospheric and wind parameters, as a first step towards a detailed analysis. The full
grid of synthetic spectra, comprising far-UV, UV, optical, and IR spectral regions, is available
on-line.
back to W. J. Maciel Homepage
back to W. J. Maciel/Research