Chemical abundances for Hf 2-2, a planetary nebula with the strongest known heavy element recombination lines

Abstract

We present high quality optical spectroscopic observations of the planetary nebula (PN) Hf 2-2. The spectrum exhibits many prominent optical recombination lines (ORLs) from heavy element ions. Analysis of the H {\sc i} and He {\sc i} recombination spectrum yields an electron temperature of $\sim 900$ K, a factor of ten lower than given by the collisionally excited [O {\sc iii}] forbidden lines. The ionic abundances of heavy elements relative to hydrogen derived from ORLs are about a factor of 70 higher than those deduced from collisionally excited lines (CELs) from the same ions, the largest abundance discrepancy factor (adf) ever measured for a PN. By comparing the observed O {\sc ii} $λ$4089/$λ$4649 ORL ratio to theoretical value as a function of electron temperature, we show that the O {\sc ii} ORLs arise from ionized regions with an electron temperature of only $\sim 630$ K. The current observations thus provide the strongest evidence that the nebula contains another previously unknown component of cold, high metallicity gas, which is too cool to excite any significant optical or UV CELs and is thus invisible via such lines. The existence of such a plasma component in PNe provides a natural solution to the long-standing dichotomy between nebular plasma diagnostics and abundance determinations using CELs on the one hand and ORLs on the other.