Discovery of magnetic fields in central stars of planetary nebulae

Abstract

For the first time we have directly detected magnetic fields in central stars of planetary nebulae by means of spectro-polarimetry with FORS1 at the VLT. In all four objects of our sample we found kilogauss magnetic fields, in NGC1360 and LSS1362 with very high significance, while in EGB5 and Abell36 the existence of a magnetic field is probable but with less certainty. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the non-spherical symmetry of most planetary nebulae is caused by magnetic fields in AGB stars. Our high discovery rate demands mechanisms to prevent full conservation of magnetic flux during the transition to white dwarfs.

8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for Publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics See also press release by A&A on their homepage www.edpsiences.org

References in corpus (2)

• Discovery of kilogauss magnetic fields in three DA white dwarfs
• Indications of a Large Fraction of Spectroscopic Binaries Among Nuclei of Planetary Nebulae

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