OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY OF CARBON-RICH PROTOPLANETARY NEBULAE

In this paper, we present a medium-resolution (3 angstrom) spectroscopic study of six proto-planetary nebulae, post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) objects with large infrared excesses. All six are found to display the spectra of G supergiants. However, they also show molecular carbon features, C2 and in most cases C3, and strong absorption lines due to s-process elements. Other evidences of a carbon-rich nature are found in published molecular-line millimeter emissions (CO and HCN) and 3.3 mum features attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These properties are all in accord with what one would expect in a post-AGB star in which carbon-rich materials formed in thermal pulses is dredged up to the surface of a mass-losing object. A correlation is found between the presence of molecular C2 absorption and the presence of the unidentified 21 mum emission feature. This strengthens the suggestion that carbon is a major component of the molecule producing this unidentified feature. Four additional proto-planetary nebulae which share some of these properties are also discussed.