The Near-Infrared Polarization of the Pre-Planetary Nebula Frosty Leo
arXiv:2005.07348 · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa1291
Abstract
We present a near-infrared imaging polarimetric study of the pre-planetary nebula: Frosty Leo. The observations were carried out in J, H and K' bands using the new polarimeter POLICAN mounted on the 2.1m telescope of the Guillermo Haro Astrophysical Observatory, Sonora, Mexico. The most prominent result observed in the polarization maps is a large and well defined dusty envelope (35\arcsec\ diameter in H-band). The polarization position angles in the envelope are particularly well ordered and nearly parallel to the equator of the nebula (seen in J and H bands). The nebula presents a known bipolar outflow and the envelope completely wraps around it. Within the bipolar lobes, we find high polarization levels ranging from (J band) to (K' band) and the polarization angles trace a centrosymmetric pattern. We found the remnants of superwind shells at the edges of the bipolar lobes and the duration of this phase is around 600 yrs. The origin of polarization features in the nebula is most likely due to a combination of single and multiple scattering. Our results clearly demonstrate new structures that provide new hints on the evolution of Frosty Leo from its previous asymptotic giant branch phase.
arXiv comment5 figures, 9 pages, accepted in MNRAS
References in corpus (15)
- SparsePak: A Formatted Fiber Field Unit for The WIYN Telescope Bench Spectrograph. I. Design, Construction, and Calibration
- Tracing Magnetic Fields with Aligned Grains
- Low-Mass Binary Induced Outflows from Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
- The Formation of Very Narrow Waist Bipolar Planetary Nebulae
- Binary stars as the key to understanding planetary nebulae
- Magnetic Fields via Polarimetry: Progress of Grain Alignment Theory
- Isolated vs. Common Envelope Dynamos in Planetary Nebula Progenitors
- Axisymmetry in proto-planetary nebulae: using imaging polarimetry to investigate envelope structure
- Magnetic fields in planetary nebulae and post-AGB nebulae
- Multiple scattering of polarized radiation by non-spherical grains: first results
- FLIERs as stagnation knots from post-AGB winds with polar momentum deficiency
- An Extreme High-Velocity Bipolar Outflow in the Pre-Planetary Nebula IRAS 08005-2356
- POLICAN: A Near-infrared Imaging Polarimeter at the 2.1m OAGH Telescope
- Characterization and Performance of the Cananea Near-infrared Camera (CANICA)
- A Submillimeter Polarization Analysis of Frosty Leo