  A radial velocity (RV) survey to detect central stars in binary systems was
carried out between 2002 and 2004. De Marco et al. (2004) reported that 10 out
of 11 monitored stars exhibited strong RV variability, but periods were not
detected. Since other mechanisms, such as wind variability, can cause apparent
RV variations, we monitored 4 of the 10 RV-variable stars at echelle
resolutions to determine the origin of the variability. Although RV changes are
confirmed for all four stars, none of them can be ascribed to binarity at this
time. However, only for IC4593 is wind variability able to explain most (though
not all) spectral variability. For BD+332642, no wind and no pulsations appear
to be the origin of the RV changes. Finally, M1-77 and M2-54, both known to be
irregular photometric variables, exhibit dramatic RV and line shape variability
of the hydrogen and HeI absorption lines, as well as large RV variability of
weaker lines, which do not change in shape. There is no satisfactory
explanation of this variability, though a combination of wind variability and
pulsations is still the best guess at what makes these stars so variable. We
suggest that luminous central stars are ill suited to detect spectroscopic
binaries, because winds (and possibly pulsations) are pervasive and would mask
even strong periodicities. It it likely that a sample of intrinsically faint
central stars would more readily yield binary information.
