We make predictions for the rate of discovery of eclipsing white dwarf-main sequence (WD-MS) binaries in terrestrial-planet transit searches, taking the planned Kepler and Eddington missions as examples. We use a population synthesis model to characterize the Galactic WD-MS population, and we find that, despite increased noise due to stellar variability compared with the typical planetary case, discovery of >100 non-accreting, eclipsing WD-MS systems is likely using Kepler and Eddington, with periods of 2-20 days and transit amplitudes of |delta m|~0.0003-0.00003 magnitudes. Follow-up observations of these systems could accurately test the theoretical white dwarf mass-radius relation or theories of binary star evolution.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0303453,
title = {Finding White Dwarfs with Transit Searches},
author = {Alison Farmer and Eric Agol},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0303453},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures, one table, accepted for publication in ApJ. Minor changes to Galactic model and to discusion section; conclusions unchanged