Chemical Abundances of Compact Planetary Nebulae in the Galactic Disk

We propose to obtain SOAR/Goodman spectra of 20 Galactic disk planetary nebulae (PNe) to derive their elemental abundances. This is an ongoing optical/IR spectral survey of 150 compact PNe to build a complete sample of their chemical abundances in the Galactic disk. Our SOAR/Goodman observations in the 2012B and 2013A semesters have yielded high quality spectra for 27 PNe; we plan to observe an additional 20 southern-sky objects in 2014B. The optical spectra will be combined with Spitzer spectra of IR collisional lines to improve abundance constraints. Our main objectives are: (1) to constrain stellar evolution models, particularly the metallicity-dependent onset of hot-bottom burning; (2) to quantify the contribution of low- to intermediate-mass stars to chemical enrichment; and (3) to improve the ionization correction factors for Ne, O, S, and Ar that we have observed in the IR. We will also compare these findings to our optical+IR Magellanic Cloud PN abundances to better understand the influence of progenitor metallicity on stellar chemical yields.