Magnetic Nested-wind Scenarios for Bipolar Outflows: Pre-planetary and YSO nebular shaping

We present results of a series of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and hydro- dynamic (HD) 2.5D simulations of the morphology of outflows driven by nested wide-angle winds - i.e. winds which eminate from a central star as well as from an orbiting accretion disk. While our results are broadly relevent to nested wind systems we have tuned the parameters of the simulations to touch on issues in both Young Stellar Objects and Planetary Nebula studies. In particular our studies connect to open issues in the early evolution of Planetary Nebulae. We find that nested MHD winds exhibit marked morphological differences from the single MHD wind case along both dimensions of the flow. Nested HD winds on the other hand give rise mainly to geometric distortions of an outflow that is topologically similar to the flow arising from a single stellar HD wind. Our MHD results are insensitive to changes in ambient temperature between ionized and un-ionized circumstellar environments. The results are sensitive to the relative mass-loss rates, and to the relative speeds of the stellar and disk winds. We also present synthetic emission maps of both nested MHD and HD simulations. We find that nested MHD winds show knots of emission appearing on-axis that do not appear in the HD case.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure

A search for type Ia supernova progenitors: The central stars of the planetary nebulae NGC 2392 and NGC 6026

We use photoionization modeling to assess the binary nature of the central stars of NGC 2392 and NGC 6026. If they are close binaries, they are potential Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) progenitors if the total mass exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit. We show that the nucleus of NGC 2392 likely has a hot, massive (≃1 M⊙) white dwarf companion, and a total mass of ~1.6 M⊙, making it an especially interesting system. The binary mass in NGC 6026 is less, ~1.1 M⊙. Even though its orbital period is short, it is not considered to be an SNe Ia progenitor. Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013.link_to_subscribed_fulltex