A CO Survey of Young Planetary Nebulae

We report the results of a sensitive survey of young planetary nebulae in the CO J = 2-1 line that significantly increases the available data on warm, dense, molecular gas in the early phases of planetary nebula formation. The observations were made using the IRAM 30 m telescope with the 3 × 3 pixel Heterodyne Receiver Array (HERA). The array provides an effective means of discriminating the CO emission of planetary nebulae in the Galactic plane from contaminating emission of interstellar clouds along the line of sight. A total of 110 planetary nebulae were observed in the survey, and 40 were detected. The results increase the number of young planetary nebulae with known CO emission by approximately a factor of 2. The CO spectra yield radial velocities for the detected nebulae, about half of which have uncertain or no velocity measurements at optical wavelengths. The CO profiles range from parabolic to double-peaked, tracing the evolution of structure in the molecular gas. The line widths are significantly larger than on the asymptotic giant branch, and many of the lines show extended wings, which probably result from the effects on the envelopes of high-velocity jets.