Distinguishing between symbiotic stars and planetary nebulae
  Number of known symbiotic stars (SySt) is still significantly lower than
their predicted population. One of the main problems in finding complete
population of SySt is the fact that their spectrum can be confused with other
objects, such as planetary nebulae (PNe) or dense H II regions. The problem is
reinforced by a fact that in significant fraction of established SySt the
emission lines used to distinguish them from other objects are not present. We
aim at finding new diagnostic diagrams that could help separate SySt from PNe.
Additionally, we examine known sample of extragalactic PNe for candidate SySt.
We employed emission line fluxes of known SySt and PNe from the literature. We
found that among the forbidden lines in the optical region of spectrum, only
the [O III] and [N II] lines can be used as a tool for distinguishing between
SySt and PNe, which is consistent with the fact that they have the highest
critical densities. The most useful diagnostic that we propose is based on He I
lines which are more common and stronger in SySt than forbidden lines. All
these useful diagnostic diagrams are electron density indicators that better
distinguishes PNe and ionized symbiotic nebulae. Moreover, we found six new
candidate SySt in the Large Magellanic Cloud and one in M81. If confirmed, the
candidate in M81 would be the furthest known SySt thus far.
