Numerical simulations of wind-driven protoplanetary nebulae. II. signatures of atomic emission

We follow-up on our systematic study of axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary nebula. The aim of this work is to generate the atomic analogues of the H2 near-infrared models of Paper I with the ZEUS code modified to include molecular and atomic cooling routines. We investigate stages associated with strong [FeII]1.64μm and [SII]6716 Å forbidden lines, the [OI]6300 Å airglow line, and Hα6563 Å emission. We simulate (⁠80−200kms−1⁠) dense (⁠105cm−3⁠) outflows expanding into a stationary ambient medium. In the case of an atomic wind interacting with an atomic medium, a decelerating advancing turbulent shell thickens with time. This contrasts with all other cases where a shell fragments into a multitude of cometary-shaped protrusions with weak oblique shocks as the main source of gas excitation. We find that the atomic wind-ambient simulation leads to considerably higher excitation, stronger peak, and integrated atomic emission as the nebula expands. The weaker emission when one component is molecular is due to the shell fragmentation into fingers so that the shock surface area is increased and oblique shocks are prevalent. Position–velocity diagrams indicate that the atomic-wind model may be most easy to distinguish with more emission at higher radial velocities. With post-AGB winds and shells often highly obscured and the multitude of configurations that are observed, this study suggests and motivates selection criteria for new surveys.