The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF): Contamination from Supernova Remnants

Abstract

The planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) has been used as an extragalactic distance indicator since the 1980's, but there are still unsolved problems associated with its use. One of the most serious involves PNLF distances beyond ~ 10 Mpc, which tend to be slightly smaller than those of other methods. We consider the implications of previous spectroscopic investigations that found that several of the brightest planetary nebula (PN) candidates in M74 are actually compact supernova remnants (SNRs). Using narrow-band imaging data from the KPNO 4-m telescope, we measure the [O III] $\lambda$5007 and H$\alpha$ fluxes of all the known SNRs in M31 and M33, and test whether those objects could be misidentified as bright PNe at distances beyond ~ 10 Mpc. Our results suggest that compact SNRs are not an important source of contamination in photometric surveys for extragalactic PNe.

arXiv comment2 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (9)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Planetary Nebulae as Standard Candles. XII. Connecting the Population I and Population II Distance Scales
• The HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale XXVI. The Calibration of Population II Secondary Distance Indicators and the Value of the Hubble Constant
• A deep kinematic survey of planetary nebulae in the Andromeda Galaxy using the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph
• The Planetary Nebula System of M33
• Planetary Nebulae in Face-On Spiral Galaxies. I. Planetary Nebula Photometry and Distances
• A revised planetary nebula luminosity function distance to NGC 628 using MUSE
• A New Optical Survey of Supernova Remnant Candidates in M31
• Optical supernova remnants in nearby galaxies and their influence on star formation rates derived from H$\alpha$ emission

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function distances for 19 galaxies observed by PHANGS-MUSE
• The True Luminosities of Planetary Nebulae in M31's Bulge: Massive Central Stars from an Old Stellar Population
• Fornax 3D project: automated detection of planetary nebulae in the centres of early-type galaxies and first results
• The Class of Jsolated Stars and Luminous Planetary Nebulae in old stellar populations
• MUSE crowded field 3D spectroscopy in NGC 300 : IV. Planetary nebula luminosity function
• A study of extragalactic planetary nebulae populations based on spectroscopy. I. Data compilation and first findings