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# Nuclear Partition Functions at Temperatures Exceeding 1010 K

## 1 Introduction

The knowledge of the nuclear partition function at high temperatures is essential in understanding the nuclear equation of state used in the core collapse phase of massive stars. In self-consistent simulations, the contraction of the core is explicitly followed up to nuclear densities, giving rise to extreme temperatures and high mean excitation energies of the nuclei. Ratios of high temperature partition functions are also ingredients in nucleosynthesis networks in explosive scenarios, such as the r- and rp-processes. When employed in nuclear statistical equilibria (NSE), they often have to be known at temperatures beyond $`10^{10}`$ K.

Recently, new sets of partition functions have been published along with astrophysical reaction rates for nuclides from proton dripline to neutron dripline and charge number $`10Z85`$ (Rauscher & Thielemann, 2000). The sets include partition functions up to $`T_9=10`$ ($`10^{10}`$ K) based on two different level densities calculated within a shifted Fermi-gas approach (Rauscher et al., 1997) utilizing two mass formulas. Here, the extension of these partition functions to temperatures of $`T_9=275`$ is presented. A straightforward extrapolation is not valid because of additional effects acting at high temperatures.

These effects have been a matter of discussion already about 20 years ago (Fowler, Engelbrecht, & Woosley, 1978; Mazurek, Lattimer, & Brown, 1979). The recently improved descriptions of nuclear level density and nuclear reaction rate predictions make it worthwhile to reconsider these arguments and to publish a complete table of partition functions. In this work, in addition to using the more recent level densities of Rauscher et al. (1997), the corrections are treated by closely following Tubbs & Koonin (1979).

## 2 Procedure

The temperature-dependent partition function $`G(T)`$ normalized to the ground state spin of the nucleus $`J^0`$ is usually defined as (Fowler et al., 1967)

$`(2J^0+1)G(T)=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mu =0}{\overset{\mu _m}{}}}(2J^\mu +1)e^{E^\mu /kT}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{E^{\mu _m}}{\overset{E^{\mathrm{max}}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{J^\mu ,\pi ^\mu }{}}(2J^\mu +1)e^{ϵ/kT}\rho (ϵ,J^\mu ,\pi ^\mu )dϵ,`$
with $`\rho `$ being the level density and $`\mu `$m the label of the last included experimentally known state. The sum over Boltzmann-weighted discrete states from the ground state to state $`\mu _m`$ is performed using experimental levels as listed in Rauscher & Thielemann (2001). Above the last known state an integration over the nuclear level density is used instead of a summation, as also outlined in Rauscher & Thielemann (2000), employing the level density description of Rauscher et al. (1997).

The upper limit $`E^{\mathrm{max}}`$ of the integration requires special consideration. Formally, the integration procedure should encompass energies up to infinity. However, for all practical purposes an energy cut-off can be introduced because the Boltzmann-factor $`e^{ϵ/kT}`$ dominates at high energies and suppresses any further contributions to the integral value. It is well known that, for instance, the maximum excitation energy above which there are no more significant contributions to the partition function is of the order of $`2025`$ MeV up to $`T_9=10`$ (Rauscher & Thielemann, 2000).

Due to the temperature dependence of the integrand in Eq. 2 its peak contribution is shifted to higher energies for higher temperatures $`T`$, thus also requiring a larger cut-off $`E^{\mathrm{max}}`$. Up to now, there has been no systematic scrutiny of the behavior of the integrand, which also weakly depends on the used level density. In Fig. 1, the integrands are plotted, also showing the peak energies and the widths of the peaks for different energies. The shown energies are in agreement with the mean excitation energies derived by Tubbs & Koonin (1979). In the same manner, the cut-off energy of 25 MeV, often used for calculating partition functions up to $`T_9=10`$, can be justified.

For $`T_9>12`$, we extract a (nearly) quadratic dependence on temperature of the peak energy $`E_{\mathrm{peak}}`$ and a linear dependence of the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{FWHM}}`$ of the integrand:

$`E_{\mathrm{peak}}`$ $`=`$ $`0.0725T_9^{2.055}\mathrm{MeV},`$ (2)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{FWHM}}`$ $`=`$ $`3T_937.0\mathrm{MeV}.`$
The integration cut-off was then set to $`E^{\mathrm{max}}=\mathrm{max}(35,E_{\mathrm{peak}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{FWHM}})`$ MeV.

## 3 High temperature corrections

Due to the exponential increase of the nuclear level density with excitation energy, extremely large partition functions already result at temperatures of a few MeV (temperatures given as energies and in $`T_9`$ are related by $`E=T_9/11.6045`$ MeV). However, it has been realized that a straightforward integration over the level density might overestimate the partition functions. High excitation energies of the nucleus permit the emission of nucleons and therefore an appropriate fraction of the level density associated with such continuum states should be neglected in the computation of the partition function.

Fowler, Engelbrecht, & Woosley (1978) introduced such high temperature corrections by truncating the integration near the nucleon separation energy and by subtracting continuum scattering states (which, however, do not act below $`T_9=100`$). Mazurek, Lattimer, & Brown (1979) accounted for the suppression of the partition functions by arbitrarily setting the integral cut-off to 25 MeV. In a semi-classical calculation, Tubbs & Koonin (1979) showed that Fowler, Engelbrecht, & Woosley (1978) and Mazurek, Lattimer, & Brown (1979) largely overestimated the suppression, that a simple truncation of the integral is incorrect, and that partition functions remain large for temperatures as high as $`T_9=100`$. They find that the corrections are much smaller than given by truncated level density integrals and that the conventional partition functions (with full integration) are much closer to their values than values obtained with any of the truncation methods.

The advantage of the description by Tubbs & Koonin (1979), which is based on the independent particle model, is the natural inclusion of both bound and continuum nuclear states. Here, we use a hybrid model by using the level density and partition function descriptions as outlined in Sec. 2 and applying correction factors derived from the spherical square well approximation of Tubbs & Koonin (1979) (Eqs. 7 and 9 in that reference) but using the same nuclear properties (nucleon separation energies, nuclear radius) as in Rauscher & Thielemann (2000). This way, a continuous extension of the partition functions of Rauscher & Thielemann (2000) is possible. While the simplicity of the equations is kept, the limitations of the spherical square well approach are partially lifted because, e.g., the separation energies are taken from experiment or from mass formulas employing more realistic nuclear potentials and accounting for shell and deformation effects. Furthermore, this approach is only used to obtain the relative corrections.

The correction factor $`C`$ is extracted by comparing the uncorrected and the corrected total nuclear partition function of Tubbs & Koonin (1979) computed in their spherical square well formalism. While referring the reader to the paper of Tubbs & Koonin (1979) for a more complete description of their approach, only the relevant equations are summarized here. The total nuclear partition function $`Z=Z_{\mathrm{esw}}=(2J_i^0+1)G_{\mathrm{esw}}(T)`$ is constructed as the sum of two terms for protons and neutrons, respectively:

$$\mathrm{ln}Z=\mathrm{ln}Z_p+\mathrm{ln}Z_n,$$
(3)
with

$$\mathrm{ln}Z_x=\mathrm{ln}q_x\alpha X+\beta E_{0x}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}(2\pi 𝔑).$$
(4)
The letter $`x`$ stands for neutron (n) and proton (p), respectively, and $`X`$ is the neutron number $`N`$ and the proton number $`Z`$, respectively. The ground state energy is denoted by $`E_{0x}`$ and the inverse nuclear temperature by $`\beta =1/kT`$ with $`\beta =11.6045/T_9`$ MeV. The mean-square number fluctuation $`𝔑`$, the nuclear contribution $`q_x`$ (as opposed to the contribution of the exterior nucleon gas) of the grand partition function, and the Lagrange multiplier $`\alpha `$ can be found with and without continuum contributions, leading to nucleon partition functions $`Z_x`$, $`Z_x^{}`$ and total partition functions $`Z`$, $`Z^{}`$ with and without corrections. In the following, primed quantities are without corrections. Thus, we obtain

$`q_x^{}=D(T)\left[F_{3/2}\left(\alpha ^{}+\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)\right],`$
$`q_x=D(T)\left[F_{3/2}\left(\alpha +\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)F_{3/2}\left(\alpha \right)\right],`$ (5)
and

$`𝔑^{}={\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}D(T)\left[F_{1/2}\left(\alpha ^{}+\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)\right],`$
$`𝔑={\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}D(T)\left[F_{1/2}\left(\alpha +\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)F_{1/2}\left(\alpha \right)\right].`$ (6)
Fermi integrals of the order $`\eta `$ with argument $`\theta `$ are denoted by $`F_\eta \left(\theta \right)`$. The factor $`D(T)`$ is

$$D(T)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{X}}\left(\frac{2\rho _FkT}{3}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}.$$
(7)
For consistency, the same particle separation energy $`S_x`$ is used as for the reaction rate calculations of Rauscher & Thielemann (2000). It is taken either from experiment or from a mass formula where no experimental information is available. The level density at the zero-temperature Fermi surface is given as

$$\rho _F=\left(\frac{4}{\sqrt{3\pi }}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}X^{\frac{1}{3}}\frac{m_xR^2}{\mathrm{}^2},$$
(8)
using the nuclear radius $`R`$ and the nucleon mass $`m_x`$. With that definition the ground state energy becomes

$$E_{0x}=\frac{3}{5}\frac{X^2}{\rho _F}XS_x.$$
(9)
Before evaluating the above equations, the appropriate (temperature dependent) Lagrange multiplicators with and without corrections have to be determined. This is done by requiring states in the grand canonical ensemble to have, on the average, the correct number of nucleons, $`X`$, and therefore by finding the root of the following equations with respect to $`\alpha `$ and $`\alpha ^{}`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}D(T)\left[F_{1/2}\left(\alpha ^{}+\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)\right]X`$ $`=0,`$ (10)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}D(T)\left[F_{1/2}\left(\alpha +\beta S_x+3\beta X/2\rho _F\right)F_{1/2}\left(\alpha \right)\right]X`$ $`=0.`$
The proper $`\alpha `$ or $`\alpha ^{}`$ found above has to be inserted also in Eq. 4, of course.

Finally, the relevant partition function $`\overline{G}(T)`$ is then obtained by multiplying the previous function (from Sec. 2) with the correction $`C`$:

$$\overline{G}(T)=C(T)G(T)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{ln}Z(T)\mathrm{ln}Z^{}(T)\right)G(T).$$
(11)
Thus, the correction factor $`C`$ found with the approach above is applied to the partition function derived in the full computation described in Sec. 2. The corrections start to act at temperatures $`T_95060`$ for light and intermediate nuclei and as low as $`T_914`$ for heavy nuclei. Corrections are negligible for $`T_910`$, implying that the partition functions from Rauscher & Thielemann (2000) can be used without further modifications. The magnitude of the corrections ranges from a few percent at the lower end of the temperature range to a suppression factor of $`10^5`$ for the heaviest nuclides at $`T_9=100`$ and $`10^{40}`$ at $`T_9=275`$, respectively. The correction factors for a few selected cases are shown in Table 1.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusion

The corrected renormalized partition functions $`\overline{G}`$ calculated with level densities utilizing input from the Finite Range Droplet Model (FRDM) (Möller et al., 1995) (see also Rauscher & Thielemann 2000) are given in Table 2. Results making use of the Extended Thomas-Fermi mass formula with shell quenching effects (ETFSI-Q) (Pearson et al., 1996) (see also Rauscher & Thielemann 2000) far from stability are given in Table 3. The properties of the mass formulas can enter via the particle separation energies which are calculated from predicted mass differences in case no experimental masses are known. Furthermore, they always enter in the microscopic correction term used in the level density treatment of Rauscher et al. (1997). The method to calculate the high temperature corrections is only applicable for bound nucleons, therefore only those nuclides are given for which both the neutron and proton separation energies are positive. The printed version of this paper contains only example tables, showing which kind of information is available. Partition functions for the full range of nuclides from proton dripline to neutron dripline for $`10Z83`$ (FRDM) and $`26Z85`$ (ETFSI-Q) are available as machine readable tables in electronic form. The formatting is the same as used in Rauscher & Thielemann (2000), except for the different temperature range. Thus, the partition functions presented here provide a smooth and analytical extension of the previous tabulation, extending the range of temperatures to $`0.1T_9275.`$

The new values for 56Ni can directly be compared to the ones from Tubbs & Koonin (1979). Fig. 2 shows the partition function of this nucleus. By comparing to Fig. 1 in Tubbs & Koonin (1979) it can be seen that the new value is higher by 45–50% around $`kT=10`$ MeV than their corrected value B. This is mainly due to the different level density description (different effective level density parameter $`a`$) used since a similar treatment of the high-temperature corrections is implemented in both calculations.

It has to be noted that the partition functions presented here are valid for low-density conditions. In high-density regimes, modifications of nuclear properties (e.g., separation energies) might have to be additionally applied. This is beyond the scope of the current investigation.

The nuclear model for the corrections (and the one for the level density) assumes a Fermi-gas of independent nucleons interacting only through a common, spin-independent mean field. At nuclear temperatures beyond about 30 MeV (i.e. $`T_9350`$), the momentum dependence of the mean field, the excitation of mesonic degrees of freedom, and the breakdown of the independent particle approximation become important. This is not relevant for the temperature range explored here but will necessitate an altogether different approach when expanding the temperature range beyond about 25–30 MeV. It is expected that the exponential rise of the partition functions with temperature will finally be effectively suppressed beyond those energies.

This work is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2000-061031.02). T.R. acknowledges a PROFIL professorship from the Swiss National Science foundation (grant 2024-067428.01).


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# Optical spectrum of the planetary nebula M 2-24

## 1 Introduction

M 2-24 (PK 356–5° 2) is a compact (angular radius $`4`$ arcsec), faint \[$`\mathrm{log}F(\mathrm{H}\beta )=12.10`$ (erg cm-2 s-1); Cahn et al. cahn1992 (1992)\] planetary nebula in the Galactic bulge. Beaulieu et al. (beaulieu (1999)) measured its heliocentric radial velocity as 137 km s-1. Using a statistical method, Zhang (zhang (1995)) obtained a distance of 11.79 kpc for M 2-24. Similar to IC 4997 (Hyung et al. hyung1994 (1994)), the spectrum of M 2-24 shows an extremely large \[O iii\] $`\lambda 4363`$ to H$`\gamma `$ $`\lambda 4340`$ intensity ratio, suggesting that it may have a high-density emission core. The presence of large density inhomogeneities in a nebula could lead to erroneous elemental abundances determined using the empirical method based on collisionally excited lines (CELs; Zhang & Liu zhangliu (2002)).

The determination of abundances in PNe provide very important constraints on the nuclear and mixing processes in their progenitor stars and on the chemical evolution of galaxies. Some recent chemical abundance studies of PNe in the Galactic Bulge are given by Ratag et al. ratag92 (1992), Ratag et al. ratag97 (1997), Cuisinier et al. cuisinier (2000), Escuder & Costa escuder (2001). However, in all these studies, the heavy element abundances relative to hydrogen were based on CELs only.

We have obtained medium-resolution, deep optical long-slit spectra of the bulge PN M 2-24. A large number of optical recombination lines (ORLs) detected in its spectrum can be used to determine elemental abundances. Unlike CELs, ionic abundances derived from ORLs are insensitive to the electron temperature and density in the emission region. Thus the presence of a high-density emission core in M 2-24 will hardly affect the abundances determined from ORLs. A long-standing problem in nebular abundance studies has been that the heavy-element abundance derived from ORLs are systematically higher than those derived from CELs (see Liu liua (2001, 2003) for recent reviews). As we show in this paper, even in the PNe with very dense cores, the large density fluctuation cannot completely explain the discrepancies between the ORL and CEL abundances. Based on detailed studies of several PNe, Liu (liua (2001)) concluded that the large discrepancies between the ORL and CEL abundances observed in some nebulae are mostly caused by the presence of extremely cold H-deficient inclusions embedded in normal nebular material.

In Sect. 2 of this paper, we describe our new optical observations of M 2-24 and data reduction and present the observed line fluxes. Dust extinction towards M 2-24 is discussed in Sect. 3. Plasma diagnostic analyses are presented in Sect. 4. In Sect. 5, we present and discuss the ionic and elemental abundances derived from both ORLs and CELs. A general discussion then follows in Sect. 6.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

The observations were carried out with the ESO 1.52 m telescope using the long-slit spectrograph Boller & Chivens (B&C). A journal of observations is presented in Table 1. In 1996, the detector was a UV-enhanced Loral $`2048\times 2048`$ $`15\mu \mathrm{m}\times 15\mu \mathrm{m}`$ chip, which was superseded in 2001 by a $`2688\times 2688`$ $`15\mu \mathrm{m}\times 15\mu \mathrm{m}`$ chip. The B&C spectrograph has a useful slit length of about 3.5 arcmin. In order to reduce the CCD read-out noise, in 1996 the CCD was binned by a factor of two along the slit direction, yielding a spatial sampling of 1.63 arcsec per pixel projected on the sky. A slit width of 2 arcsec was used throughout except for one short exposure for which an 8 arcsec wide slit was used so that total line fluxes from the whole nebula were recorded. The slit was oriented in the north-south direction (PA$`=0^{}`$). The wavelength range from 3530 Å–7430 Å was observed in 1996 with an effective spectral resolution of 4.5 Å, as determined from the FWHM of the calibration lamp lines. A short exposure was taken in order to obtain intensities of the brightest emission lines, which were saturated in the spectrum of 5 min exposure time. At the same slit position an additional wavelength range was observed in 2001, covering 3500 Å–4805 Å at a resolution of 1.5 Å FWHM.

All the spectra were reduced using the long92 package in midas111midas is developed and distributed by the European Southern Observatory. following the standard procedure. The spectra were bias-subtracted, flat-fielded and cosmic-rays removed, and then wavelength calibrated using exposures of a HeAr-CuFe calibration lamps. Absolute flux calibration was obtained by observing the standard stars Feige 110 and the nucleus of PN NGC 7293 (Walsh walsh (1993)). The extracted spectra M 2-24, after integrating along the slit, are plotted in Fig. 1. The spectra have not been corrected for interstellar extinction. The spectrum taken with an 8 arcsec wide slit yields an $`\mathrm{H}\beta `$ flux of $`\mathrm{log}F(\mathrm{H}\beta )=12.11`$ (erg cm-2 s-1), which is in good agreement with the value of -12.10 (erg cm-2 s-1) tabulated in Cahn et al. (cahn1992 (1992)).

All line fluxes, except those of the strongest lines, were measured using Gaussian line profile fitting. For the strongest and isolated lines, fluxes were obtained integrating over the observed line profiles. A full list of observed lines and their measured fluxes are presented in Table 2. In Table 2, column (1) gives the observed wavelengths after corrected for the Doppler shift as determined from the Balmer lines. The observed fluxes are given in column (2). Column (3) lists the fluxes after corrected for interstellar extinction, $`I(\lambda )=10^{cf(\lambda )}F(\lambda )`$, where $`f(\lambda )`$ is the standard Galactic extinction law for a total-to-selective extinction ratio of $`R=3.1`$ (Howarth howarth (1983)) and $`c`$ is the logarithmic extinction at $`\mathrm{H}\beta `$ (cf. Sect. 3). Column (4)–(10) give the ionic identification, laboratory wavelength, multiplet number, the lower and upper spectral terms of the transition, and the statistical weights of the lower and upper levels, respectively. All fluxes are normalized such that $`\mathrm{H}\beta =100`$.

## 3 Reddening summary

The measured H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$, H$`\gamma `$/H$`\beta `$, and H$`\delta `$/H$`\beta `$ ratios, together with the logarithmic extinction at H$`\beta `$, $`c=\mathrm{log}I(\mathrm{H}\beta )/F(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$, derived from these ratios using the Galactic reddening law of Howarth (howarth (1983)), are listed in Table 3. The extinction derived from the H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ ratio is higher than those derived from the higher order Balmer lines, suggesting possible self-absorption effects caused by significant optical depths in the Balmer lines. The Balmer line ratios H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$/H$`\beta `$ as a function of the optical depths of Ly $`\alpha `$ and H $`\alpha `$ are given by Cox & Mathews (cox (1969)). For an H $`\alpha `$ optical depth of 5, the observed H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$/H$`\beta `$ ratios yield very similar reddening constants of $`c(\mathrm{H}\beta )=0.80`$. For comparison, the observed total H$`\beta `$ flux, $`\mathrm{log}F(\mathrm{H}\beta )=12.11`$ erg cm-2 s-1 and the 5-GHz radio free-free continuum flux density, $`S(5\mathrm{GHz})=0.003`$ Jy, for M 2-24 (Cahn et al. cahn1992 (1992)) yield a very low value, $`c(\mathrm{H}\beta )=0.08`$. It is possible that the radio flux density for this faint PN may have been significantly underestimated, leading to an underestimated interstellar extinction constant. On the other hand, it is also possible, as has been known for some time (Stasíska et al. stasinska (1992); Walton, Barlow & Clegg walton (1993); Liu et al. liu2001 (2001)), the standard interstellar extinction law ($`R_V=3.1`$) may not be applicable to the lines-of-sight towards Galactic bulge PNe. Here we have adopted $`c(\mathrm{H}\beta )=0.80`$, as derived from the observed Balmer line ratios after corrected for the optical depth effects, to deredden the optical spectra.

## 4 Plasma diagnostics

In the optical spectrum of M 2-24, a number of CELs, which are useful for nebular diagnostic analysis and abundance determinations, are observed. The electron temperatures and densities derived from various CEL diagnostic ratios were obtained by solving the level populations for multilevel ($`5`$) atomic models. The plasma diagnostic diagram based on these line ratios are plotted in Fig. 2. The ratios employed were \[N ii\] $`(\lambda 6548+\lambda 6584)/\lambda 5754`$, \[O ii\]a $`(\lambda 7320+\lambda 7330)/(\lambda 3726+\lambda 3729)`$, \[O ii\]b $`\lambda 3726/\lambda 3729`$, \[S ii\]a $`(\lambda 4068+\lambda 4076)/(\lambda 6731+\lambda 6716)`$, \[S ii\]b $`\lambda 6731/\lambda 6716`$, \[O iii\] $`(\lambda 4959+\lambda 5007)/\lambda 4363`$ and \[Ar iii\] $`\lambda 7135/\lambda 5192`$. Note that the intensity of the weak line \[Ar iii\] $`\lambda 5192`$ has a relatively large uncertainty making the \[Ar iii\] $`\lambda 7135/\lambda 5192`$ ratio less reliable as a plasma diagnostic. According to the intersectant points of the temperature diagnostic \[N ii\] $`(\lambda 6548+\lambda 6584)/\lambda 5754`$ with four density diagnostics \[O ii\]a $`(\lambda 7320+\lambda 7330)/(\lambda 3726+\lambda 3729)`$, \[O ii\]b $`\lambda 3726/\lambda 3729`$, \[S ii\]a $`(\lambda 4068+\lambda 4076)/(\lambda 6731+\lambda 6716)`$ and \[S ii\]b $`\lambda 6731/\lambda 6716`$, we can conclude that the singly ionized regions can be characterized by a temperature of $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}400}\pm 500`$ K and a density of $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=3.7\pm 0.4`$. On the other hand, emission from doubly ionized species such as \[O iii\] $`(\lambda 4959+\lambda 5007)/\lambda 4363`$ appear to arise from a separate high density emission region.

Fig. 2 also shows the Balmer jump (BJ) temperature derived from the ratio of the nebular continuum Balmer discontinuity at 3646 Å to H 11 $`\lambda 3770`$ (Fig. 3), using the formula given by Liu et al. (liu2001 (2001)). We used the ratio of the Balmer discontinuity to H 11 rather than to H$`\beta `$, since the temperature thus derived is much less sensitive to uncertainties in the reddening correction and flux calibration, given the small wavelength difference between the Balmer discontinuities and H 11. The He+/H+ and He++/H+ ionic abundance ratios, which are needed to calculate $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(BJ), are taken from Sect. 5. We found $`T_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{BJ})=\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}300}`$ K, which is about 5000 K higher than the temperature implied by the nebular diagnostics from singly ionized species.

If we assume that the \[O iii\] and \[Ar iii\] lines arise from a hotter region of $`T_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{BJ})=\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}300}`$ K, then the \[O iii\] and \[Ar iii\] diagnostic ratios plotted in Fig. 2 would yield an electron density of $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=6.35`$ and 6.15, respectively. This would suggest that this hotter, high ionization region (dominated by doubly ionized species) is probably also much denser than the cooler region from which lines from singly ionized species arise.

That M 2-24 contains a dense emission region is supported by our analysis of its hydrogen recombination line spectrum. In Fig. 4, we plot the observed intensities of high-order hydrogen Balmer lines ($`n2`$, $`n=11,13,\mathrm{},23`$) as a function of the principal quantum number $`n`$ of the upper level. Theoretical intensities for different electron densities are also plotted assuming an electron temperature of 16 300 K, as deduced from the ratio of nebular continuum Balmer discontinuity to H 11. The intensities of the Balmer decrement are density-sensitive but depend only weakly on temperature, thus provide a valuable density diagnostic. In particular, they can be used to probe high-density ionization regions where collisionally excited diagnostic lines of relatively low critical densities are suppressed by collisional de-excitation. Given our spectral resolution, the Balmer lines can be resolved (and thus the Balmer decrement can be measured) up to $`n=23`$. Fig. 4 shows that the measured intensities of almost all the Balmer lines from $`n=11`$ to 23 yield an best fit density between $`10^6`$$`10^7`$ cm-3, except for H 14 $`\lambda `$3721.94, H 15 $`\lambda `$3711.97 and H 16 $`\lambda `$3703.86, which are blended with the \[S iii\] $`\lambda 3721.63`$, O iii $`\lambda 3715.08`$ and He i $`\lambda 3705.12`$ lines, respectively.

Table 4 summarizes these electron temperatures and densities derived from the various diagnostics, which suggests that \[O iii\] and \[Ar iii\] emission lines arise probably from a different region with those singly ionized species. In Fig. 5, we compare the surface brightness distributions of several emission lines along the slit. The figure shows that the spatial distribution of \[O iii\] $`\lambda 4363`$ line is similar to that of the \[Ar iii\] $`\lambda 7135`$ line, while emissions from singly ionic species such as the \[O ii\] $`\lambda 3729`$ and \[S ii\] $`\lambda 6731`$ lines are apparently from more extensive regions.

The above analysis reveals that M 2-24 has two distinct emission regions of very different physical conditions. The hotter and denser region, characterized by $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}300}`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=6.3`$, is from a dense core close to the central star. The cooler, lower density region, characterized by $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}400}`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=3.7`$ and dominated by emission from singly ionized species, is from an outer shell. Thus M 2-24 bears many resemblances to Mz 3 previously analyzed by us (Zhang & Liu zhangliu (2002)).

Fig. 6 illustrates $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ derived from various diagnostics as a function of Ionization Potential (IP) of the diagnostic lines. For the purpose of ionic abundance determinations (see below), we have thus divided the nebula into two regions based on IP, as indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 6.

## 5 Abundance analysis

In this section we present the elemental abundances derived from observed line intensities relative to H$`\beta `$. For both CELs and ORLs abundance calculations, the effective recombination coefficient of H$`\beta `$ was taken from Storey & Hummer (storey1995 (1995)). Based on the plasma diagnostic results, a constant temperature of $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}300}`$ K and a density of $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=6.3`$ have been assumed for ions with IP higher than 20 eV. For ions of lower IP, a constant temperature of $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}400}`$ K and a density of $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=3.7`$ have been assumed.

In Sect. 3, we showed that the Balmer line emission from the nebula is probably optically thick and estimated an optical depth of 5 for H$`\alpha `$. The effect of self-absorption on H$`\beta `$ flux has to be corrected for before the observed line intensities tabulated in Table 2 can be used to calculate the ionic abundances. The escape probability of H$`\beta `$ as a function of H$`\alpha `$ optical depth has been calculated by Cox & Mathews (cox (1969)). By interpolating their results, we derived an escape probability of 0.67 for H$`\beta `$ for an H$`\alpha `$ optical depth of 5. Consequently, we have divided all the line intensities relative to H$`\beta `$ tabulated in Table 2 by a factor of 0.67 before calculating the ionic abundances.

### 5.1 Ionic abundances from CELs

The ionic abundances are derived by

$$\frac{N(\mathrm{X}^{i+})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}=\frac{I_{jk}}{I_{\mathrm{H}\beta }}\frac{\lambda _{jk}}{\lambda _{\mathrm{H}\beta }}\frac{\alpha _{\mathrm{H}\beta }}{A_{jk}}(\frac{N_j}{N(\mathrm{X}^{i+})})^1N_\mathrm{e}$$
(1)
where $`I_{jk}/I_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ is the ratio of the intensity of the ionic line to H$`\beta `$; $`\lambda _{jk}/\lambda _{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ is the ratio of the wavelength of the ionic line to that of H$`\beta `$; $`\alpha _{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ is the effective recombination coefficient of $`\mathrm{H}\beta `$; $`A_{jk}`$ is the Einstein spontaneous transition probability of the ionic line; and $`N_j/N(\mathrm{X}^{i+}`$) is the ratio of the fractional population of the upper level from which the ionic line originates, which is sensitive to the electron temperature and density. References for the adopted collision strengths and transition probabilities are listed in Table 5.

The ionic abundances derived from optical CELs are presented in Table 6. Given that ionic abundances derived from CELs are very sensitive to the adopted electron temperature and density, and the fact that their values in the dense central emission core of M 2-24 are not well constrained by our current observations, the results presented in Table 6 may suffer large uncertainties. Additional errors may also be introduced by the fact that not all the observed fluxes of lines with IP $`>`$ 20 eV arise entirely within the dense core. Conversely, not all the observed fluxes of lines with IP $`<`$ 20 eV arise exclusively in the the outer, less dense nebular layers. In other words, our simple two-zone model may not be sufficient for such a complicated object.

For comparison, Table 6 also gives the N+/H+, O+/H+ and S+/H+ abundance ratios derived from the \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$5754, \[O ii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$7320, 7330 and \[S ii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4068, 4076 auroral or transauroral lines, which, owning to their higher critical densities, are less density-dependent than the \[N ii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6548, 6584, \[O ii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$3726, 3729 and \[S ii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6716, 6731 nebular lines. On the other hand, given their higher excitation energies, the ionic abundances derived from auroral or transauroral lines are more sensitive to the adopted $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ than those derived from nebular lines. The abundances derived from the auroral or transauroral lines are in good agreement with those deduced from the nebular lines, suggesting the adopted electron temperature and density for the low ionization region are reasonable.

### 5.2 Ionic abundances from ORLs

In order to compare with the ionic abundances derived from CELs, we also determine ionic abundances using ORLs. From the measured intensities of ORLs, ionic abundances can be derived using

$$\frac{N(\mathrm{X}^{i+})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}=\frac{I_{jk}}{I_{\mathrm{H}\beta }}\frac{\lambda _{jk}}{\lambda _{\mathrm{H}\beta }}\frac{\alpha _{\mathrm{H}\beta }}{\alpha _{jk}}$$
(2)
where $`\alpha _{jk}`$ is the effective recombination coefficient for the ionic ORL. Ionic abundances derived from ORLs depend only weakly on the adopted temperature, $`T_\mathrm{e}^\alpha `$, where $`|\alpha |1`$, and are essentially independent of $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ under the low density conditions (N$`{}_{e}{}^{}10^8`$ cm-3). As a consequence, the presence of temperature and density fluctuations will have little effects on ORL abundances. The ionic abundances derived from ORLs are presented in Table 7. ORLs blended with strong lines have large uncertainties in the measured intensities and therefore have been excluded from the table.

The He+/H+ abundance ratios derived from the $`\lambda \lambda `$4471, 5876 and 6678 lines were weighted by 1:3:1, roughly proportional to the intrinsic intensity ratios of the three lines. In a typical PN, the singlet resonance lines of He i are strongly optically thick, thus Case B recombination is usually a much better approximation than Case A for the He i singlet recombination lines. The He i triplets have no $`n=1`$ ground level and resonance lines from the meta-stable (pseudo) ground level 2s 3S are normally optically thin, thus Case A recombination should be a good approximation for the He i triplet lines. Therefore, Case A recombination was assumed for the triplet lines $`\lambda `$4471 and $`\lambda `$5876, and Case B for the singlet $`\lambda `$6678 line. A recent calculation of the effective recombination coefficients of He i lines is given by Smits (smits1996 (1996)). The contributions to the observed line fluxes by collisional excitation from the He0 2s3S and 2s1S meta-stable levels by electron impacts were studied by Sawey & Berrington (sawey (1993)). Combining the recombination data of Smits (smits1996 (1996)) and the collision strengths of Sawey & Berrington (sawey (1993)), Benjamin et al. (benjamin (1999)) presented improved values for He i line emission coefficients and fitted the results with analytical formulae. We have adopted their formulae in determining the He+/H+ abundance ratios. The results derived from the three lines, $`\lambda \lambda `$4471, 4876 and 6678, agree reasonably well. The He2+/H+ abundance ratio was calculated using the He ii $`\lambda `$4686 line only, for which the effective recombination coefficient was taken from Storey & Hummer (storey1995 (1995)). Compared with He+/H+, the He2+/H+ abundance ratio is negligible, suggesting M 2-24 is a relatively low excitation nebula.

In Table 8, we compare the intensities of He i lines relative to $`\lambda `$4471 line observed in the spectrum of M 2-24 with the predictions of Benjamin et al. (benjamin (1999)) for an electron temperature of $`T_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}400}`$ K and a density of $`\mathrm{log}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=3.7`$. The relative differences, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(I_{\mathrm{obs}}I_{\mathrm{pred}})/I_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ are also given. Table 8 shows excellent agreement between the observations and recombination theory for the 2p 3Po$`n`$d 3D and 2p 1Po$`n`$d 1D series. The observed intensity of 2s 3S–$`3`$p 3Po $`\lambda 3889`$ is much lower than the theoretical prediction, suggesting absorption and reprocessing of photons of the 2s 3S–$`n`$p 3Po series to be quite significant. As a result, the 2p 3Po$`3`$s 3S $`\lambda 7065`$ is enhanced, consistent with the observations. A detail discussion of the effect of optical depth of the 2 3S level on the nebular spectrum of He i line is given by Benjamin et al. (benjamin2002 (2002)). Table 8 also shows that the observed intensities of the 2s 1S–$`5`$p 1Po $`\lambda 3614`$ and 2p 1Po$`3`$p 1So $`\lambda 7281`$ are significantly lower than the predicted values. Similar features have also been found in the spectra of other PNe, such as NGC 6153 (Liu et al. liubarlow (2000)), M 1-42, and M 2-36 (Liu et al. liu2001 (2001)). This is attributed to the destruction of He i Lyman photons by the photoionization of H0 or by absorption of dust grains (Liu et al. liu2001 (2001)).

The C2+/H+ abundance ratio was estimated from the 3d 2D–4f 2F $`\lambda `$4267 doublet, which has a high S/N ratio. The adopted effective recombination coefficient for the C ii transition was from Davey et al. (davey (2000)), considering the effects of both radiative and di-electronic recombination. Case B was assumed, although the effective recombination coefficient of the C ii $`\lambda `$4267 line is fairly case-insensitive. The C3+/H+ abundance ratio was derived from the $`\lambda 4187`$ (V 18) C iii recombination line based on the effective recombination coefficient given by Péquignot et al. (pequignot (1991)) and the di-electronic recombination coefficient given by Nussbaumer & Storey (nussbaumer1984 (1984)). The C iv 3s 2S–3p 2Po $`\lambda \lambda 5802,5812`$ lines of multiplet V 1 have been detected in the spectrum of M 2-24. However, no effective recombination coefficient is available for this multiplet. Thus ORL C4+/H+ abundance ratio cannot be determined. In fact, the C iv $`\lambda \lambda 5802,5812`$ lines are expected to arise mainly in the wind from the central star due to their broad feature and the low He2+/H+ abundance ratio in the PN.

The N2+/H+ abundance ratio was derived from N ii ORLs from the 3s–3p, 3p–3d and 3d–4f configurations. Only triplet lines were detected and Case B recombination was assumed for all these triplets. The strongest transition is V3 3s 3Po–3p 3D $`\lambda 5679.56`$ and its effective recombination coefficient is fairly insensitive to the assumption of Case A or B. In comparison, the effective recombination coefficient of the other strong multiplet, V 28 3p 3P–3d 3Do $`\lambda 5941`$, is extremely case-sensitive. Comparison of N2+/H+ abundances derived from the two multiplets, assuming Case B, suggests Case B is a good approximation for V 28. The latest calculation for the effective recombination coefficients of N ii lines, including contributions from both radiative and di-electronic recombination, is given by Kisielius & Storey (kisielius2002 (2002)), assuming LS-coupling. The calculation however did not include the 3d–4f transitions for which effects due to departure from LS-coupling become important. We have thus adopted the effective recombination coefficients given by Kisielius & Storey (kisielius2002 (2002)) for the 3s–3p and 3p–3d transitions and those by Escalante & Victor (escalante (1990)) for the 3d–4f transitions. In the spectra of M 2-24 and M 2-36, Liu et al. (liu2001 (2001)) found that the N2+/H+ ratios derived from the 3s–3p (V 3 and V 5) transitions are significantly higher than those derived from the 3d–4f lines and attributed the discrepancy to continuum fluorescence excitation of the 3–3 transitions by starlight. The fluorescence can play a role in the excitation of the 3–3 transitions, but not for transitions from the 3d–4f configurations. In M 2-24, the ionic abundance derived from the N ii multiplet V3 3s 3Po–3p 3D $`\lambda 5680`$ is in good agreement with those deduced from the 3d–4f configurations, suggesting that fluorescence is not important in this nebula. The N ii V 5 3s 3Po–3p 3P $`\lambda 4607`$ line yields a higher N2+/H+ ratio than the average (by a factor of 2–3), but this is probably caused by its blending with the \[Fe iii\] $`\lambda 4607`$ line. The N3+/H+ abundance ratio was derived from the N iii $`\lambda 4379`$ line of Multiplet V18 using the effective recombination coefficient of Péquignot et al. (pequignot (1991)) and the di-electronic recombination coefficient of Nussbaumer & Storey (nussbaumer1984 (1984)). Although a number of N iii lines of Multiplet V3 are detected, no effective recombination coefficients are available for these lines. N iii lines of Multiplets, V1 and V2 are excited by Bowen fluorescence mechanism or by stellar continuum fluorescence, thus cannot be used for abundance determinations.

A number of O ii multiplets have been detected, both doublets and quartets. The O2+/H+ abundance ratios derived from them agree reasonably well except for a few cases. The effective recombination coefficients are from Storey (storey1994 (1994)) for 3s–3p transitions (assuming $`LS`$-coupling) and Liu et al. (liu1995 (1995)) for 3p–3d and 3d–4f transitions (assuming intermediate coupling). Case A was assumed for the doublets and Case B for the quartets. However, all the multiplets analyzed here are case-insensitive except for V19. The good agreement between the O2+/H+ abundance ratios derived from V19 and those from the other multiplets suggests that Case B is a good assumption for V19. Several multiplets of O iii permitted lines have been detected. Unfortunately, all of them are dominated by excitation of the Bowen fluorescence mechanism or by the radiative charge transfer reaction of O3+ and H0 (Liu & Danziger liu1993 (1993); Liu et al. liub1993 (1993)) rather than by recombination. Thus they cannot be used for abundance determinations.

Table 7 also gives the Ne2+/H+ abundance ratios derived from several Ne ii ORLs. For the Ne ii 3s 4P–3p 4P $`\lambda 3777`$ line (V 1), the effective recombination coefficients was taken from Kisielius et al. (kisielius1998 (1998)), calculated in $`LS`$-coupling. Case B was assumed although the multiplet is case-insensitive. For the 3d–4f lines, preliminary effective recombination coefficients calculated in intermediate coupling (Storey, private communication) were used. As in the case of NGC 6153 (Liu et al. liubarlow (2000)), NGC 7009(Luo et al. luo (2001)), M 1-42 and M 2-36 (Liu et al. liu2001 (2001)), the Ne2+/H+ ratio derived from the Ne ii 3s 4P–3p 4P $`\lambda 3777`$ multiplet is lower than those deduced from the 3d-4f transitions. For M 2-24, the ratio of the average Ne2+/H+ ratio derived from the 3d–4f lines to the value deduced from the 3s–3p line is 2.0, comparable with the corresponding values of 1.7, 2.0, 1.4 and 2.0 for NGC 6153, NGC 7009, M 1-42 and M 2-36, respectively. The cause of the disparity remains unknown.

Mg2+/H+ ratio has been derived from the Mg ii 3d 2D–4f 2Fo $`\lambda 4481`$ line. As pointed out by Barlow et al. (barlow (2002)), the Mg ii 4481.21 line is the strongest and easiest to measure ORL from any third-row ion. The effective recombination coefficient of the C ii $`\lambda 4267`$ has been assumed for the Mg ii $`\lambda 4481`$ line in the calculation of Mg2+/H+, given the similarity between the atomic structure of Mg ii and C ii. Mg2+ occupies an unusually large ionization potential interval, from 15 eV to 80 eV, thus in a typical nebula, essentially all Mg exists in the form of Mg2+.

### 5.3 Comparison of ORL and CEL abundances of O2+ and Ne2+

O2+/H+ and Ne2+/H+ ratios are available from both ORLs and CELs. In both cases, the ORL abundances are found to be significantly higher than the corresponding values derived from CELs. Peimbert et al. (peimbert1993 (1993)) calculated O2+/H+ abundances ratios in two H ii regions the Orion Nebula, M 17 and in the planetary nebula NGC 6572 using O ii ORLs and found that they are about a factor of 2 higher than those derived from \[O iii\] forbidden lines. They attributed the discrepancy to the presence of spatial temperature fluctuations. However, detailed abundance analyses for the PNe NGC 7009 (Liu et al. liu1995 (1995); Luo et al. luo (2001)), NGC 6153 (Liu et al., liubarlow (2000)), M 1-42 and M 2-36( Liu et al., liu2001 (2001)), which show extremely large discrepancies between the ORL and CEL abundances, ranging from a factor of 5 up to a factor of 20, have found that infrared fine-structure lines, which are temperature-insensitive, also yield quite low ionic abundance similar to those derived from the optical and UV CELs. Thus fluctuations of temperature are not the main cause of the discrepancy. In M 2-24, the discrepancies are a factor of 17 and 46 for O2+/H+ and Ne2+/H+, respectively. Considering that M 2-24 shows an unusual large density contrast (approx. 3 orders of magnitude) between the core and the low ionization regions, the density fluctuations might have played an important role in causing the discrepancy. In the dense region of M 2-24, CELs are strongly suppressed due to heavy collisional de-excitation. The electron density of $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{cm}^3)=6.3`$ adopted above may have been underestimated for the \[O iii\] and \[Ne iii\] emission regions. As a result, the ionic abundances derived from these lines may have been underestimated. The Balmer decrement suggests the electron density of M 2-24 can be as high as $`10^7`$ cm-3 (see Fig. 4). If we assume a density of $`10^{7.3}`$ cm-3, then the O2+/H+ abundance ratio derived from CELs becomes consistent with that from ORLs. However, even for such a high density, the Ne2+/H+ ratio derived from CELs increases by only a factor of about five, which is far below a factor of 46, a factor of required to reconcile the ORL and CEL abundances. Although \[Ne iii\] lines might arise from regions of even higher densities because of their higher critical densities than \[O iii\] lines, the required density turns out to be $`10^{8.7}`$ cm-3 in order to reconcile the ORL and CEL Ne2+/H+ ratios, which is relatively higher than the value suggested by Balmer decrement. Therefore, density fluctuations alone cannot account for the discrepancy, at least in case of Ne2+/H+ abundances derived from lines of different excitation mechanisms.

### 5.4 Total abundance

The total elemental abundances derived for M 2-24 from CELs and ORLs are presented in Table 9. The ionization correction factors (ICFs) listed in the second column of this table are for the corrections of He, C, N, O, Ne and Mg ORL abundances and N, O, Ne, S, Ar and Fe CEL abundances (see below). For comparison, we also list the average abundances deduced for Galactic PNe by Kingsburgh & Barlow (kingsburgh (1994)) and the solar photospheric abundances compiled by Grevesse & Sauval (grevesse (1998)).

Due to the relatively low excitation nature of M 2-24 (the excitation class $`\mathrm{E}.\mathrm{C}.=1.7`$, see Sect. 6), a significant amount of neutral helium in the ionized hydrogen zone is expected. In order to correct for the unseen He0, it is necessary to evaluate the helium ICF. For this purpose, we note that He0 has an ionization potential of 24.5 eV, very close to the value of 23.3 eV for S+. Thus to a good approximation, we have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{He}}{\mathrm{H}}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ICF}(\mathrm{He})\times {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{He}^+}{\mathrm{H}^+}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{S}^++\mathrm{S}^{2+}}{\mathrm{S}^{2+}}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{He}^+}{\mathrm{H}^+}}.`$
From the S+ and S2+ abundances presented in Table 6, we obtain ICF(He)$`=1.63`$.

For carbon, C ii and C iii ORLs have been detected. The ionic concentration in C3+ should be negligible given the nearly absence of He2+ in M 2-24. The C+ ionic concentration needs to be accounted for. Thus the carbon abundance is derived by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{C}}{\mathrm{H}}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ICF}(\mathrm{C})\times ({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{C}^{2+}}{\mathrm{H}^+}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{C}^{3+}}{\mathrm{H}^+}}),`$
where ICF is estimated as (Kingsburgh & Barlow kingsburgh (1994)),

$`\mathrm{ICF}(\mathrm{C})={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{O}^++\mathrm{O}^{2+}}{\mathrm{O}^{2+}}}=1.04.`$
For oxygen, the ionic concentration O3+ again can be neglected. Thus the total elemental abundance of oxygen is simply given by the sum of the ionic concentrations in O+ and O2+, both have been observed in the case of CEL analysis. For ORL analysis, however, the O+ ionic abundance cannot be determined. The total ORL abundance of oxygen thus is obtained by assuming that the O2+/O ratio for the ORL abundance is same as for the CEL abundance.

For nitrogen, neon, sulphur and argon, the total CEL abundances were derived using the ICF formulae given by Kingsburgh & Barlow (kingsburgh (1994)). The total ORL abundances of nitrogen and neon are also estimated based on the assumption that the fractions of the unobserved ionic species for the ORL abundances are the same as those in the case of the CEL abundances. Among these elements, nitrogen has an extremely large ICF of 23.3 because only singlet ionized stage is detected for this element. Such a large ICF could lead to a large error in the final N/H elemental abundance ratio derived from CELs.

For magnesium, no ionic abundance is available from CELs and only Mg2+/H+ abundance ratio has been determined from an ORL. However, Mg2+ is the dominant ionic stage of magnesium due to its large ionization potential interval, ranging from 15 to 80 eV. Mg3+ must be negligible in this low excitation nebula. Thus no ionization correction is needed, and we have assumed that $`\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{H}=\mathrm{Mg}^{2+}/\mathrm{H}^+`$.

For iron, we estimated the abundance by adding the ionic abundances of Fe2+ and Fe3+. Fe4+ has been ignored based on the same reasoning for Mg3+. The ionic concentration in Fe+ was not included as well because Fe0 has a IP of only 7.9 eV, thus Fe+ exists mainly in the photodissociation regions outside the ionized zone (defined by H+).

The ORL analyses yield a He/H ratio of 0.107 and a N/O ratio of 0.25. According to the criteria defined by Peimbert & Torres-Peimbert (peimbert (1983)), M 2-24 is a Type-II PN. Barlow et al. (barlow (2002)) derived Mg/H abundances for ten PNe and found they fall within a remarkably narrow range consistent with the solar value. In M 2-24, the Mg/H abundance is higher than the solar value by a factor of 6.3, suggesting that not all PNe have similar Mg/H abundances. The iron abundance in M 2-24 is depleted by a factor of 26 with respect to the solar value. The high depletion of iron in PNe is generally thought to be due to the effective removal of gas phase iron by condensing into dust grains.

Given the insensitivity of the ORL abundances to temperature and density, and the very small (and similar) ICFs involved, C/O, N/O, Ne/O and Mg/O ratios derived from ORLs should be highly reliable. According to Table 9, the \[C/O\], \[N/O\], \[Ne/O\] and \[Mg/O\] ratios derived from ORLs are -0.08, 0.3, 0.62 and 0.47, respectively. The enhancement of nitrogen could be attributed to the combined effects of the third dredge-up with hot-bottom burning. It is however very interesting to note that two $`\alpha `$-elements, neon and magnesium are overabundant with respect to oxygen by large amounts. This is further discussed in the following section.

## 6 Discussion

The optical spectrum of M 2-24 shows that it is a low-excitation PN. Based on the excitation classification scheme proposed by Dopita & Meatheringham (dopita90 (1990)), which makes use of the observed $`I`$(\[O iii\]$`\lambda `$5007)/$`I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$ line ratio for low and intermediate excitation PNe (E.C. $`5`$), and the $`I(\mathrm{He}\mathrm{II}\lambda 4686)/I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$ ratio for higher excitation class PNe, we find that M 2-24 has an E.C. of 1.7 from the observed $`I`$(\[O iii\]$`\lambda 5007`$)/$`I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$ ratio.

In Fig. 7, we show that in M 2-24, the densities derived from various diagnostic line ratios are positively correlated with their critical densities. There might be a denser region in the nebular core, where all density-diagnostic CEL lines become invalid due to strong collisional de-excitation. Such a high density nebular core might be caused by the strong mass exchange between the central star and its companion or by compression of shock waves. Similar features are also found in other PNe, such as M 2-9 (Allen & Swings allen (1972)), Mz 3 (Zhang & Liu zhangliu (2002)), He 2-428 and M 1-91 (Rodríguez et al. rodriguez (2001)). Zhang & Liu (zhangliu (2002)) showed that \[Fe iii\] forbidden lines are ideal diagnostics to probe the high density regions because of their relative high critical densities ($`10^6`$ cm-3). Unfortunately, only a few \[Fe iii\] lines are detected in the spectrum of M 2-24.

M 2-24 shares some common characteristics with the bipolar nebula Mz 3. Both PNe are low excitation and have dense emission cores. For both PNe, the extinctions yielded by the H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ ratio are significantly higher than those derived from the higher order Balmer lines, suggesting that the Balmer lines from these dense central regions could be optically thick. Thus, M 2-24 and Mz 3 might share a similar evolutionary scenario that the two PNe may have been produced by eruptions of binary systems. On the other hand, there are some differences between the two objects. M 2-24 has a prominently higher neon abundance than Mz 3. While the iron abundance of M 2-24 is relative lower than that of Mz 3 (approx. one order of magnitude). This could imply that the two objects have been formed in different chemical environments.

In our abundance analysis of the highly-ionized species, the Balmer jump temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{BJ})=\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}300}`$ K was used. The ratio of the nebular continuum Balmer discontinuity to Balmer line is practically independent of the density, thus $`T_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{BJ})`$ yields the average temperature of the nebula. As a consequence, if there are large temperature variations in the nebula, our CEL abundances of high-ionization species will be problematic. Liu et al. (liu2001 (2001)) found the discrepancy between the ionic abundances derived from ORL and CEL is positively correlated with the difference between the electron temperatures derived from the \[O iii\] forbidden line on the one hand and from the nebular continuum Balmer discontinuity on the other, i.e. $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(\[O iii\])$`T_\mathrm{e}`$(BJ). For M 2-24, the O2+/H+ abundance ratio derived from ORLs is higher than that derived from CELs by a factor of 17, suggesting $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(\[O iii\]) might be higher than $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(BJ) by approximately about 5000 K (c.f. the fitting given by Liu et al. liu2001 (2001)). Such a discrepancy of temperature is partially attributed to the temperature fluctuation across the nebula, as suggested by Peimbert (peimbert1971 (1971)), although the high-density regions can cause \[O iii\] nebular lines to be collisionally de-excited and lead to overestimated $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(\[O iii\]), as pointed out by Viegas & Clegg (viegas (1994)). Thus the adoption of $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(BJ) might lead to overestimating the CEL abundances of M 2-24. In order to clarify the effects of the temperature fluctuation on CEL abundances in M 2-24, better temperature-diagnostics for the high-density regions are needed.

In order to explain the disparity between the elemental abundances derived from CEL and from ORL, Liu et al. (liubarlow (2000)) presented a two-component nebular model, with H-deficient material embedded in diffuse material with ‘normal’ abundance ($``$ solar). The generally higher ORL abundances than the solar suggest the H-deficient condensations might also exist in M 2-24. ORL abundances of heavy elements have been enhanced by the H-deficient inclusions. On the other hand, the presence of the high density core region might lead to underestimated CEL abundances, as discussed above. The lack of an ideal temperature-diagnostic for the high-density regions also causes some uncertainty in the derived CEL abundances. Therefore, both the abundances derived here from CELs and from ORLs might be uncertain for this particular PN. For the purpose of accurate abundance determination, a proper photoionization model, which includes a dense central emission core and possible existence of H-deficient condensations is needed, which is beyond the scope of the current paper.

It is noteworthy that this bulge PN has a large magnesium abundance enhancement over solar. Barlow et al. (barlow (2002)) have presented that the observed enhancement in ORL abundance for second-row elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and neon, is absent for third-row elements such as magnesium and silicon. Considering the depletion of magnesium in PNe, although expected to be small (Barlow et al. barlow (2002)), the observed Mg/H ratio should represent a lower limit to the magnesium abundance of the progenitor star of M 2-24. Thus the high Mg/H ratio implies that the progenitor star of this bulge PN may be extremely Mg-rich, suggesting it has formed in a very different environment with respect to the Sun. This is consistent with previous studies which show that magnesium is generally enhanced in the Galactic bulge (McWilliam & Rich mcwilliam (1994)). In addition, neon is enhanced by a large amount relative to the solar abundance. The general enhancement of $`\alpha `$-elements in M 2-24 may suggest that Type II supernova explosions might have played a major role in the chemical evolution history of the Galactic bugle, given that $`\alpha `$-elements are mainly produced by massive stars which explode as Type II supernovae. To test this, however, the O, Ne and Mg abundances for a large sample of Galactic bulge PNe need to be studied. Alternatively, M 2-24 might have been heavily polluted by nucleosynthesis in its progenitor star. In other words, this object could be in fact a symbiotic nova. The presence of an extremely dense core in M 2-24, which might have been produced by, e.g. mass transfer, seems to be in favour of this argument. Further observation is needed to clarify this.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to S.-G Luo and Y. Liu for their help with the preparation of this paper. We would also like to thank the anonymous referee for the suggestions that improved this paper. This work was partially supported by Beijing Astrophysics Center (BAC).