Orbital decay mechanisms argue that double white dwarf mergers are inevitable, but extremely rare. Whilst some mergers result in explosions, the survivors re-ignite helium and burn brightly for tens of thousands or millions of years. Candidate survivors include extreme helium stars, R CrB variables and various classes of helium-rich subluminous star. Nuclear waste on the survivors' surfaces provides evidence of the stars' nuclear history prior to and their nucleosynthesis during the merger. Extensive and deep spectroscopic surveys offer rich prospects for future discoveries.
@article{arxiv.2011.02209,
title = {Merged white dwarfs and nucleosynthesis},
author = {Simon Jeffery and Xianfei Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.02209},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Originally presented at the conference '150 Years of the Periodic Table' held in Bengaluru, India, in 2019, December, and to appear in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy. 11 pages, 5 figures