The Large Magellanic Cloud PN population

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) allow us to study late stellar evolution in environments that are respectively about a half and a quarter the metallicity of the Milky Way. With a known distance and low reddening, the LMC is an excellent environment to study PNe and conduct multiple studies. Over the past twelve months we have used the UKST Hα survey to complete our search for faint PNe in the outer most LMC beyond the 64 deg2 area previously covered. Follow-up spectroscopy using AAOmega on the AAT and the 2.3-m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory have yielded a further 22 new LMC PNe while confirming the 8 previously known in the outer LMC. Medium- and high-resolution spectra have been used to measure fluxes and derive densities, mass and central star temperatures. A strong correlation is found between PNe and stellar density. This is visually displayed and given an empirical value of α = 1 PN / 2.5 × 106 L⊙. The current [O iii]-based PNLF, apart from providing an excellent standard candle, contains information about the parent population. The new PNLF, which extends down nine magnitudes, permits investigation of the faint end, the overall effects of internal extinction and provides clues to explain the insensitivity of the PNLF cutoff. When compared to the ionised density and mass of LMC PNe, the PNLF reveals it’s bimodal characteristics. Two separate evolutionary paths are evident for young, evolving PNe

A multi-wavelength investigation of newly discovered planetary nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud : central stars

Having completed my search for faint PNe in the LMC, including the outer 64 deg2 area not covered in the original UKST survey, I now have the most complete number of PNe within any galaxy with which to assess stellar parameters. I present preliminary estimates for planetary nebula central star temperatures for 688 LMC PNe using the excitation class parameter derived from emission lines in the nebula. These are then compared to a photoionisationmodel in order to evaluate the contribution of metallicity when determining stellar temperatures using only emission lines. I include measurements from my latest confirmatory spectroscopic observations which have yielded a further 110 new LMC PNe while confirming the 102 previously known PNe in the outer LMC. These observations, providing low and medium resolution spectra from 3650Å to 6900Å, have been added to my comparable data for PNe in the central 25deg2 of the LMC. The combined data were used to measure fluxes in preparation for a number of projects related to luminosity functions, chemical abundances, central star properties and LMC kinematics. Here I provide a preliminary look at the range of derived central star effective temperature estimates. I also show a correlation between the central star temperatures and the expansion velocity of the nebula

Optical discovery and multiwavelength investigation of supernova remnant MCSNR J0512-6707 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present optical, radio and X-ray data that confirm a new supernova remnant (SNR) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) discovered using our deep Hα imagery. Optically, the new SNR has a somewhat filamentary morphology and a diameter of 56×64 arcsec (13.5×15.5 pc at the 49.9 kpc distance of the LMC). Spectroscopic follow-up of multiple regions show high [S II]/Hα emission-line ratios ranging from 0.66 ± 0.02 to 0.93 ± 0.01, all of which are typical of an SNR. We found radio counterparts for this object using our new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) 6 cm pointed observations as well as a number of available radio surveys at 8640 MHz, 4850 MHz, 1377 MHz and 843 MHz. With these combined data we provide a spectral index α≈−0.5 between 843 and 8640 MHz. Both spectral line analysis and the magnetic field strength, ranging from 124 to 184 μG, suggest a dynamical age between ∼2200 and∼4700 yr. The SNR has a previously catalogued X-ray counterpart listed as HP 483 in the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) catalogue

New DSH planetary nebulae and candidates from optical and infrared surveys

To date, the planetary nebula (PN) survey of the Deep Sky Hunters collaboration has led to the detection of more than 250 previously unknown candidate planetary nebulae (PNe). About 60% of them were found during the past two years and are expected to be true, likely or possible PNe because careful vetting has already thrown out more doubtful objects. The majority of the new PN candidates are located within the boundaries of the SHS and IPHAS Ha surveys and were discovered by combining MIR data from the WideField Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) with optical data from the IPHAS, SHS and DSS surveys, and UV data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer(GALEX)

Spitzer Space Telescope spectra of post-AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at low metallicities

This paper reports variations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) features that were found in Spitzer Space Telescope spectra of carbon-rich post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The paper consists of two parts. The first part describes our Spitzer spectral observing programme of 24 stars including post-AGB candidates. The latter half of this paper presents the analysis of PAH features in 20 carbon-rich post-AGB stars in the LMC, assembled from the Spitzer archive as well as from our own programme. We found that five post-AGB stars showed a broad feature with a peak at 7.7 μm, that had not been classified before. Further, the 10-13 μm PAH spectra were classified into four classes, one of which has three broad peaks at 11.3, 12.3 and 13.3 μm rather than two distinct sharp peaks at 11.3 and 12.7 μm, as commonly found in HII regions. Our studies suggest that PAHs are gradually processed while the central stars evolve from post-AGB phase to planetary nebulae, changing their composition before PAHs are incorporated into the interstellar medium. Although some metallicity dependence of PAH spectra exists, the evolutionary state of an object is more significant than its metallicity in determining the spectral characteristics of PAHs for LMC and Galactic post-AGB stars

APASS Landolt-Sloan BVgri photometry of RAVE stars. I. Data, effective temperatures, and reddenings

We provide AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS) photometry in the Landolt BV and Sloan g′r′i′ bands for all 425,743 stars included in the fourth RAVE Data Release. The internal accuracy of the APASS photometry of RAVE stars, expressed as the error of the mean of data obtained and separately calibrated over a median of four distinct observing epochs and distributed between 2009 and 2013, is 0.013, 0.012, 0.012, 0.014, and 0.021 mag for the B, V, g′, r′, and i′ bands, respectively. The equally high external accuracy of APASS photometry has been verified on secondary Landolt and Sloan photometric standard stars not involved in the APASS calibration process and on a large body of literature data on field and cluster stars, confirming the absence of offsets and trends. Compared with the Carlsberg Meridian Catalog (CMC-15), APASS astrometry of RAVE stars is accurate to a median value of 0.098 arcsec. Brightness distribution functions for the RAVE stars have been derived in all bands. APASS photometry of RAVE stars, augmented by 2MASS JHK infrared data, has been χ2 fitted to a densely populated synthetic photometric library designed to widely explore temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, and reddening. Resulting Teff and EB-V, computed over a range of options, are provided and discussed, and will be kept updated in response to future APASS and RAVE data releases. In the process, we find that the reddening caused by a homogeneous slab of dust, extending for 140 pc on either side of the Galactic plane and responsible for EB-V poles = 0.036 ± 0.002 at the Galactic poles, is a suitable approximation of the actual reddening encountered at Galactic latitudes |b| ≥ 25°

The Galah survey : classification and diagnostics with t-SNE reduction of spectral information

Galah is an ongoing high-resolution spectroscopic survey with the goal of disentangling the formation history of the Milky Way using the fossil remnants of disrupted star formation sites that are now dispersed around the Galaxy. It is targeting a randomly selected magnitude-limited (V ≤ 14) sample of stars, with the goal of observing one million objects. To date, 300,000 spectra have been obtained. Not all of them are correctly processed by parameter estimation pipelines, and we need to know about them. We present a semi-automated classification scheme that identifies different types of peculiar spectral morphologies in an effort to discover and flag potentially problematic spectra and thus help to preserve the integrity of the survey results. To this end, we employ the recently developed dimensionality reduction technique t-SNE (t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding), which enables us to represent the complex spectral morphology in a two-dimensional projection map while still preserving the properties of the local neighborhoods of spectra. We find that the majority (178,483) of the 209,533 Galah spectra considered in this study represents normal single stars, whereas 31,050 peculiar and problematic spectra with very diverse spectral features pertaining to 28,579 stars are distributed into 10 classification categories: hot stars, cool metal-poor giants, molecular absorption bands, binary stars, Hμ/Hβ emission, Hμ/Hβ emission superimposed on absorption, Hμ/Hβ P-Cygni, Hμ/Hβ inverted P-Cygni, lithium absorption, and problematic. Classified spectra with supplementary information are presented in the catalog, indicating candidates for follow-up observations and population studies of the short-lived phases of stellar evolution

[In Press] New ASKAP radio Supernova Remnants and candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present a new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) sample of 14 radio Supernova Remnant (SNR) candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This new sample is a significant increase to the known number of older, larger and low surface brightness LMC SNRs. We employ a multi-frequency search for each object and found possible traces of optical and occasionally X-ray emission in several of these 14 SNR candidates. One of these 14 SNR candidates (MCSNR J0522-6543) has multi-frequency properties that strongly indicate a bona fide SNR. We also investigate a sample of 20 previously suggested LMC SNR candidates and confirm the SNR nature of MCSNR J0506-6815. We detect lower surface brightness SNR candidates which were likely formed by a combination of shock waves and strong stellar winds from massive progenitors (and possibly surrounding OB stars). Some of our new SNR candidates are also found in a lower density environments in which SNe type Ia explode inside a previously excavated interstellar medium (ISM)

The GALAH survey : scientific motivation

The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey is a large high-resolution spectroscopic survey using the newly commissioned High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The HERMES spectrograph provides high-resolution (R ∼ 28 000) spectra in four passbands for 392 stars simultaneously over a 2 deg field of view. The goal of the survey is to unravel the formation and evolutionary history of the Milky Way, using fossil remnants of ancient star formation events which have been disrupted and are now dispersed throughout the Galaxy. Chemical tagging seeks to identify such dispersed remnants solely from their common and unique chemical signatures; these groups are unidentifiable from their spatial, photometric or kinematic properties. To carry out chemical tagging, the GALAH survey will acquire spectra for a million stars down to V ∼ 14. The HERMES spectra of FGK stars contain absorption lines from 29 elements including light proton-capture elements, α-elements, odd-Z elements, iron-peak elements and n-capture elements from the light and heavy s-process and the r-process. This paper describes the motivation and planned execution of the GALAH survey, and presents some results on the first-light performance of HERMES