Related papers: Constraining white-dwarf kicks in globular cluster…
Various stellar objects experience a velocity kick at some point in their evolution. These include neutron stars and black holes at their birth or binary systems when one of the two components goes supernova. For most of these objects, the…
Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…
The magnetism and rotation of white dwarf (WD) stars are investigated in relation to a hydromagnetic dynamo operating in the progenitor during shell burning phases. The downward pumping of angular momentum in the convective envelope, in…
It has long been accepted that a possible mechanism for explaining the existence of magnetic white dwarfs is the merger of a binary white dwarf system, as there are viable mechanisms for producing sustainable magnetic fields within the…
Being the first of its kind, the white dwarf WD 1145+017 exhibits a complex system of disintegrating debris which offers a unique opportunity to study its disruption process in real time. Even with plenty of transit observations there are…
We present a study of the white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence (CS) in the globular cluster (GC) Omega Centauri, the primary goal of a dedicated Hubble Space Telescope (HST) programme. Our analysis has revealed that the peak at the termination…
UV radiation from white dwarfs can efficiently clear Galactic globular clusters (GCs) of their intra-cluster medium (ICM). This solves the problem of the missing ICM in clusters, which is otherwise expected to build up to easily observable…
The processes that form and shape galaxy clusters, such as infall, mergers and dynamical relaxation, tend to generate distinguishable differences between the distributions of a cluster's giant and dwarf galaxies. Thus the dynamics of dwarf…
We present deep and accurate photometry (F435W, F625W, F658N) of the Galactic Globular Cluster Omega Cen collected with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We identified ~ 6,500 white dwarf…
Current gravitational wave detectors are sensitive to coalescing black holes and neutron stars. However, double white dwarfs (DWDs) have long been recognized as promising sources of gravitational waves, and upcoming detectors like LISA will…
Improved observations of globular clusters are uncovering a large number of radio pulsars and of X-ray sources. The latter include binaries in which a neutron star or a white dwarf accretes matter from a companion, recycled pulsars, and…
We have completed a Monte-Carlo simulation to estimate the effect of binary star orbits on the measured velocity dispersion in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. This paper analyses previous attempts at this calculation, and explains the…
White dwarf stars are the most common end point of stellar evolution. Of special interest are the ultramassive white dwarfs, as they are related to type Ia Supernovae explosions, merger events, and Fast Radio Bursts. Ultramassive white…
Many magnetic white dwarfs exhibit a polarised spectrum that periodically varies as the star rotates because the magnetic field is not symmetric about the rotation axis. In this work, we report the discovery that while weakly magnetic white…
We have run high resolution N-body models simulating the encounter of a dwarf galaxy with a bright elliptical galaxy. The dwarf absorbs orbital angular momentum and shows counter-rotating features in the external regions of the galaxy. To…
Using archival Hubble Space Telescope observations, we report the discovery of four variable low-mass white dwarfs ($0.18 \, M_\odot \leq M \leq 0.5 \,M_\odot$) in the globular cluster NGC 6397. One source exhibits a periodic optical…
We systematically examine how the presence in a binary affects the final core structure of a massive star and its consequences for the subsequent supernova explosion. Interactions with a companion star may change the final rate of rotation,…
It has been recently suggested that white dwarfs generate magnetic fields in a process analogous to the Earth. The crystallization of the core creates a compositional inversion that drives convection, and combined with rotation, this can…
The globular cluster omega Centauri is one of the largest and most massive members of the galactic system. However, its classification as a globular cluster has been challenged making it a candidate for being the stripped core of an…
We summarize and discuss recent work (Fregeau 2007) that presents the confluence of three results suggesting that most Galactic globular clusters are still in the process of core contraction, and have not yet reached the thermal equilibrium…