We have obtained spectra of 28 planetary nebulae in the bulge of M31 using the MOS spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Typically, we observed the [O II] λ3727 to He I λ5876 wavelength region at a resolution of approximately 1.6 å/pixel. For 19 of the 21 planetary nebulae whose [OIII]λ5007 luminosities are within 1 mag of the peak of the planetary nebula luminosity function, our oxygen abundances are based upon a measured [OIII]λ4363 intensity, so they are based upon a measured electron temperature. The oxygen abundances cover a wide range, 7.85 dex < 12 + log(O/H) < 9.09 dex, but the mean abundance is surprisingly low, 12 + log(O/H)–8.64 ± 0.32 dex, i.e., roughly half the solar value (Anders & Grevesse 1989). The distribution of oxygen abundances is shown in Figure 1, where the ordinate indicates the number of planetary nebulae with abundances within ±0.1 dex of any point on the x-axis. The dashed line indicates the mean abundance, and the dotted lines indicate the ±1 σ points. The shape of this abundance distribution seems to indicate that the bulge of M31 does not contain a large population of bright, oxygen-rich planetary nebulae. This is a surprising result, for various population synthesis studies (e.g., Bica et al. 1990) have found a mean stellar metallicity approximately 0.2 dex above solar. This 0.5 dex discrepancy leads one to question whether the mean stellar metallicity is as high as the population synthesis results indicate or if such metal-rich stars produce bright planetary nebulae at all. This could be a clue concerning the mechanism responsible for the variation in the number of bright planetary nebulae observed per unit luminosity in different galaxies (e.g., Hui et al. 1993).
Planetary Nebulae as Tracers of the Intergalactic Stellar Background: A Population Synthesis Theoretical Approach
