Related papers: Binary Star Origin of High Field Magnetic White Dw…
We have detected longitudinal magnetic fields between 2 and 4 kG in three (WD 0446$-$790, WD 1105$-$048, WD 2359$-$434) out of a sample of 12 normal DA white dwarfs by using optical spectropolarimetry done with the VLT Antu 8 m telescope…
We describe spectroscopic observations of 21 low-mass (<0.45 M_sun) white dwarfs (WDs) from the Palomar-Green Survey obtained over four years. We use both radial velocities and infrared photometry to identify binary systems, and find that…
Observations of magnetic A, B and O stars show that the poloidal magnetic flux per unit mass has an upper bound of 10^-6.5 G cm^2/g. A similar upper bound is found for magnetic white dwarfs even though the highest magnetic field strengths…
Wide binaries made up of two white dwarfs (WDs) receive far less attention than their tight counterparts. However, our tests using the binary population synthesis code {\tt StarTrack} indicate that, for any set of reasonable initial…
Magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs) are key to understanding the origin and evolution of magnetic fields in compact stars. While large spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS have greatly expanded the known sample, the potential of LAMOST has not yet…
The third data release of Gaia introduced a large catalog of astrometric binaries, out of which about 3,200 are likely main-sequence stars with a white-dwarf (WD) companion. These binaries are typically found with orbital separations of ~1…
To shed light on the origin of magnetic symbiotic stars, we investigated the system FN Sgr in detail. We searched for a reasonable formation pathway to explain its stellar and binary parameters including the magnetic field of the accreting…
Four magnetic white dwarfs have been found in the course of the Hamburg/ESO Survey for bright QSOs. The objects have been selected as QSO candidate on the basis of its blue continuum and the apparent absence of strong hydrogen or helium…
We considered the formation of detached white dwarf main-sequence star (WDMS) binaries through seven evolutionary channels subdivided according to the evolutionary process that gives rise to the formation of the white dwarf or its…
The hard X-ray spectrum of magnetic cataclysmic variables can be modelled to provide a measurement of white dwarf mass. This method is complementary to radial velocity measurements, which depend on the (typically rather uncertain) binary…
High-field magnetic white dwarfs have been long suspected to be the result of stellar mergers. However, the nature of the coalescing stars and the precise mechanism that produces the magnetic field are still unknown. Here we show that the…
Constraints from surveys of post common envelope binaries (PCEBs) consisting of a white dwarf plus an M-dwarf companion have led to significant progress in our understanding of the formation of close white dwarf binary stars with low-mass…
Assuming that white dwarf (WD) magnetic fields are generated by a crystallization- and rotation-driven dynamo, the impact of the late appearance of WD magnetic fields in cataclysmic variables (CVs) has been shown to potentially solve…
The White Dwarf Binary Pathways Survey aims at increasing the number of known detached A, F, G and K main sequence stars in close orbits with white dwarf companions (WD+AFGK binaries) to refine our understanding about compact binary…
We have discovered that the white dwarf PG 2329+267 is magnetic, and assuming a centered dipole structure, has a dipole magnetic field strength of approximately 2.3MG. This makes it one of only approximately 4% of isolated white dwarfs with…
Stellar mergers are one important path to highly magnetised stars. Mergers of two low-mass white dwarfs may create up to every third hot subdwarf star. The merging process is usually assumed to dramatically amplify magnetic fields. However,…
Double degenerate white dwarf (WD) mergers can exhibit extreme magnetic fields exceeding $10^{8}$ G and rapid rotation, but their spectral-energy distributions and high-energy emission mechanisms remain poorly characterised. ZTF J1901+1458…
Magnetic fields have been detected in several hundred white dwarfs, with strengths ranging from a few kG to several hundred MG. Only a few of the known fields have a mean magnetic field modulus below about 1 MG. We are searching for new…
A significant fraction of isolated white dwarfs host magnetic fields in excess of a MegaGauss. Observations suggest that these fields originate in interacting binary systems where the companion is destroyed thus leaving a singular,…
We study the evolution of white dwarf (WD) magnetic fields that originate from core-convective dynamos during the main-sequence. Using stellar evolution and WD cooling models combined with magnetic field diffusion calculations, we…