Binary planetary nebulae nuclei towards the Galactic bulge

Abstract

Considerable effort has been applied towards understanding the precise shaping mechanisms responsible for the diverse range of morphologies exhibited by planetary nebulae (PNe). At least 10–20% of PNe have central stars (CSPN) with a close binary companion thought responsible for heavily shaping the ejected PN during common-envelope (CE) evolution, however morphological studies of the few available examples found no clear distinction between PNe and post-CE PNe. The discovery of several new binary central stars (CSPN) from the OGLE-III photometric variability survey has significantly increased the number of post-CE PNe available for morphological analysis to 30 PNe. High quality Gemini South narrow-band images are presented for most of the OGLE sample, while some previously known post-CE PNe are reanalysed with images from the literature. Nearly 30% of nebulae have canonical bipolar morphologies, however this could be as high as 60% once inclination effects are incorporated with the aid of geometric models. This is the strongest observational evidence yet linking CE evolution to bipolar morphologies. A higher than average proportion of the sample shows low-ionisation knots, filaments or jets suggesting they have a binary origin. These features are also common in nebulae around emission-line nuclei which may be explained by speculative binary formation scenarios for H-deficient CSPN.