The Emission Nebula Sh 2-174: A Radio Investigation of the Surrounding
  Region
  Sh 2-174 is believed to be either a planetary nebula (PN) or ionized, ambient
interstellar medium (ISM). We present in this paper 1420 MHz polarization, 1420
MHz total intensity (Stokes-I), and neutral hydrogen (HI) images of the region
around Sh 2-174. The radio images address not only the nature of the object,
but also the history of the relationship between Sh 2-174 and its surrounding
environment. The HI images show that Sh 2-174 sits presently at the center of a
1.2 deg x 0.4 deg cloud. The Stokes-I image shows thermal emission peaks
coincident with the R-band optical nebula, as well as low-surface-brightness
emission from an ionized "halo" around Sh 2-174 and from an ionized "plateau"
extending southeast from the cloud. The polarization images reveal
Faraday-rotation structures along the projected trajectory of Sh 2-174,
including a high-contrast structure with "arms" that run precisely along the
eastern edge of the HI cloud and a wide central region which merges with the
downstream edge of Sh 2-174. The high-contrast structure is consistent with an
ionized tail which has both early-epoch (before Sh 2-174 entered the cloud) and
present-epoch (after Sh 2-174 entered the cloud) components. Furthermore, our
rotation-measure analysis indicates that the ISM magnetic field is deflected at
the leading edge of Sh 2-174. The downstream tail and upstream field deflection
point to a PN-ISM interaction. Our estimated space velocity for the host white
dwarf (GD~561) demonstrates that Sh 2-174 entered the cloud approximately
27,000 yr ago, and gives a PN-ISM interaction timescale less than approximately
200,000 yr. We estimate an ambient magnetic field in the cloud of 11 +/- 3
microGauss.
