English

Study Self-lensing/Eclipsing Signals in Edge-on Double White-Dwarf Systems

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-01-14 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Abstract

Stellar lightcurves from edge-on double white dwarf systems(DWDs) have periodic lensing/eclipsing signals at times of alignment between two components as seen by the observer. Here, we study the characterization and detection of these signals. In common DWDs, the Einstein radii have similar orders of magnitude with WDs' radii, and the projected source and lens radii normalized to the Einstein radius (ρ\rho_{\star}, and ρl\rho_{\rm l}) are 1\sim 1. Both of them are reduced with the orbital period and the lens mass. If ρl1\rho_{\rm l}\simeq 1 the lensing-induced minor image is always blocked by the lens which results lower magnification factors. If ρl1\rho_{\rm l}\lesssim 1 and in transit events the finite-lens effects decrease the lightcurves' width. When ρl1\rho_{\rm l}\gtrsim1 (happens for close DWDs including one low-mass and one massive WD) deep or complete eclipses dominate to lensing effects. The self-lensing signals maximize for massive DWDs in wide orbits. We study the detect-ability of lensing/eclipsing signals in edge-on DWDs in observations by The NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS), The Vera Rubin Observatory(LSST) and The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. We simulate stellar lightcurves due to edge-on DWDs and generate synthetic data points based on their observing strategies. Detection efficiency maximizes for extremely low-mass WDs in close orbits, and the numbers of DWDs within 100 pc and an observing cone with detectable lensing/eclipsing signals in one 27.427.4-day TESS and 6262-day Roman observing window are 1\sim1 and <1<1, respectively. Detecting these signals by LSST is barely possible because of its long cadence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.06498,
  title  = {Study Self-lensing/Eclipsing Signals in Edge-on Double White-Dwarf Systems},
  author = {Sedighe Sajadian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.06498},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

15 Pages, 6 Figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:03:24.585Z