We have searched for [ OIII ] 5007 emission in high resolution spectroscopic data from Flames/Giraffe VLT observations of 174 massive globular clusters ( GCs ) in NGC 4472 .
No planetary nebulae ( PNe ) are observed in these clusters , constraining the number of PNe per bolometric luminosity , \alpha < 0.8 \times 10 ^ { -7 } PN/L _ { \odot } .
This is significantly lower than the rate predicted from stellar evolution , if all stars produce PNe .
Comparing our results to populations of PNe in galaxies , we find most galaxies have a higher \alpha than these GCs ( more PNe per bolometric luminosity – though some massive early-type galaxies do have similarly low \alpha ) .
The low \alpha required in these GCs suggests that the number of PNe per bolometric luminosity does not increase strongly with decreasing mass or metallicity of the stellar population .
We find no evidence for correlations between the presence of known GC PNe and either the presence of low mass X-ray binaries ( LMXBs ) or the stellar interaction rates in the GCs .
This , and the low \alpha observed , suggests that the formation of PNe may not be enhanced in tight binary systems .
These data do identify one [ OIII ] emission feature , this is the ( previously published ) broad [ OIII ] emission from the cluster RZ 2109 .
This emission is thought to originate from the LMXB in this cluster , which is accreting at super-Eddington rates .
The absence of any similar [ OIII ] emission from the other clusters favors the hypothesis that this source is a black hole LMXB , rather than a neutron star LMXB with significant geometric beaming of its X-ray emission .