Zinc abundances of planetary nebulae

Abstract

Zinc is a useful surrogate element for measuring Fe/H as, unlike iron, it is not depleted in the gas phase media. Zn/H and O/Zn ratios have been derived using the [Zn IV] emission line at 3.625um for a sample of nine Galactic planetary nebulae, seven of which are based upon new observations using the VLT. Based on photoionization models, O/O++ is the most reliable ionisation correction factor for zinc that can readily be determined from optical emission lines, with an estimated accuracy of 10% or better for all targets in our sample. The majority of the sample is found to be sub-solar in [Zn/H]. [O/Zn] in half of the sample is found to be consistent with Solar within uncertainties, whereas the remaining half are enhanced in [O/Zn]. [Zn/H] and [O/Zn] as functions of Galactocentric distance have been investigated and there is little evidence to support a trend in either case.Comment: Accepted MNRAS, 11 pages, 8 figure