Binarity in planetary nebula central stars

A plausible hypothesis is that they are due to the presence of a close stellar or substellar companion. So far, only ~40 binary central stars of PN have been detected, almost all of them with such short periods that their binarity is revealed by photometric variability.

Here we have endeavoured to discover binary central stars at any separation, thus determining the unbiased binary fraction of central stars of PN. This number, when compared to the binary fraction of the presumed parent population, can give a first handle on the origin of PN. By detecting the central stars in the I band we have searched for cool companions.