The DESI Early Data Release White Dwarf Catalogue
Abstract
The Early Data Release (EDR) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) comprises spectroscopy obtained from 2020 December 14 to 2021 June 10. White dwarfs were targeted by DESI both as calibration sources and as science targets and were selected based on Gaia photometry and astrometry. Here we present the DESI EDR white dwarf catalogue, which includes 2706 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs of which approximately 1630 (roughly 60 per cent) have been spectroscopically observed for the first time, as well as 66 white dwarf binary systems. We provide spectral classifications for all white dwarfs, and discuss their distribution within the Gaia Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We provide atmospheric parameters derived from spectroscopic and photometric fits for white dwarfs with pure hydrogen or helium photospheres, a mixture of those two, and white dwarfs displaying carbon features in their spectra. We also discuss the less abundant systems in the sample, such as those with magnetic fields, and cataclysmic variables. The DESI EDR white dwarf sample is significantly less biased than the sample observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is skewed to bluer and therefore hotter white dwarfs, making DESI more complete and suitable for performing statistical studies of white dwarfs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2402.18641,
title = {The DESI Early Data Release White Dwarf Catalogue},
author = {Christopher J. Manser and Paula Izquierdo and Boris T. Gänsicke and Andrew Swan and Detlev Koester and Akshay Robert and Siyi Xu and Keith Inight and Ben Amroota and N. P. Gentile Fusillo and Sergey E. Koposov and Bokyoung Kim and Arjun Dey and Carlos Allende Prieto and J. Aguilar and S. Ahlen and R. Blum and D. Brooks and T. Claybaugh and A. P. Cooper and K. Dawson and A. de la Macorra and P. Doel and J. E. Forero-Romero and E. Gaztañaga and S. Gontcho A Gontcho and K. Honscheid and T. Kisner and A. Kremin and A. Lambert and M. Landriau and L. Le Guillou and Michael E. Levi and T. S. Li and A. Meisner and R. Miquel and J. Moustakas and J. Nie and N. Palanque-Delabrouille and W. J. Percival and C. Poppett and F. Prada and M. Rezaie and G. Rossi and E. Sanchez and E. F. Schlafly and D. Schlegel and M. Schubnell and H. Seo and J. Silber and G. Tarlé and B. A. Weaver and Z. Zhou and H. Zou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.18641},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
19 pages, 17 figures, not including appendix. Submitting to MNRAS. Comments and suggestions welcome