Chemical Abundances of Planetary Nebulae in the Substructures of M31
  We present deep spectroscopy of planetary nebulae (PNe) that are associated
with the substructures of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). The spectra were obtained
with the OSIRIS spectrograph on the 10.4 m GTC. Seven targets were selected for
the observations, three in the Northern Spur and four associated with the Giant
Stream. The most distant target in our sample, with a rectified galactocentric
distance >100 kpc, was the first PN discovered in the outer streams of M31. The
[O III] 4363 auroral line was well detected in the spectra of all targets,
enabling electron temperature determination. Ionic abundances are derived based
on the [O III] temperatures, and elemental abundances of helium, nitrogen,
oxygen, neon, sulfur, and argon are estimated. The relatively low N/O and He/H
ratios as well as abundance ratios of alpha-elements indicate that our target
PNe might belong to populations as old as ~2 Gyr. Our PN sample, including the
current seven and the previous three observed by Fang et al., have rather
homogeneous oxygen abundances. The study of abundances and the spatial and
kinematical properties of our sample leads to the tempting conclusion that
their progenitors might belong to the same stellar population, which hints at a
possibility that the Northern Spur and the Giant Stream have the same origin.
This may be explained by the stellar orbit proposed by Merrett et al. Judging
from the position and kinematics, we emphasize that M32 might be responsible
for the two substructures. Deep spectroscopy of PNe in M32 will help to assess
this hypothesis.
