Related papers: A Progress Report on the Carbon Dominated Atmosphe…
We present the discovery of photometric variations in the carbon-dominated atmosphere (hot DQ) white dwarf star SDSS J133710.19-002643.6. We find evidence for two low-amplitude, harmonically-related periodicities at 169 s and 339 s, making…
Classical DQ stars are white dwarfs whose atmospheres contain detectable traces of carbon brought up to the surface by a convective dredge-up process. Intriguingly, unlike other white dwarf spectral classes, DQ stars virtually never show…
We estimated the spectral evolution of white dwarfs with effective temperature using the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) second data release (DR2), that provides twelve photometric optical passbands over 2176 deg2. We…
Among stars showing carbon molecular bands (C stars), the main sequence dwarfs, likely in post-mass transfer binaries, are numerically dominant in the Galaxy. Via spectroscopic selection from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we retrieve 1220 C…
The photospheric metal pollution of white dwarfs is now well-established as the signature of the accretion of planetary debris. However, the origin of the trace hydrogen detected in many white dwarfs with helium atmospheres is still…
White dwarfs whose atmospheres are polluted by terrestrial-like planetary debris have become a powerful and unique tool to study evolved planetary systems. This paper presents results for an unbiased Spitzer IRAC search for circumstellar…
Astrophysics experiments by Falcon et al. to create white dwarf photospheres in the laboratory are currently underway. The experimental platform measures Balmer line profiles of a radiation-driven, pure hydrogen plasma in emission and in…
Helium rich subdwarf O stars (sdOs) are hot compact stars in a pre-white dwarf evolutionary state. Most of them have effective temperatures and surface gravities in the range Teff = 40,000-50,000 K and log g = 5.5-6.0. Their atmospheres are…
Observations of planetary material polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs are an important probe of the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Medium- and high-resolution optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven white dwarfs…
This paper reports preliminary yet compelling kinematical inferences for N ~ 600 carbon-rich dwarf stars that demonstrate around 30% to 60% are members of the Galactic halo. The study uses a spectroscopically and non-kinematically selected…
We model the structure of the surface magnetic fields of the hydrogen-rich white dwarfs in the SDSS. We have calculated a grid of state-of-the-art theoretical optical spectra of hydrogen-rich magnetic white dwarfs with magnetic field…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), originally targeted at quasi-stellar objects, has provided us with a wealth of astronomical byproducts through the last decade. Since then, the number of white dwarfs (WDs) with physically bound…
We present Keck High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) observations and model atmosphere analysis for two nearby, cool, helium-dominated atmosphere white dwarfs that have been polluted by accretion: WD J1927-0355 and WD J2141-3300.…
A total of 81 DA white dwarfs have been observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope in a snapshot program. The targets were selected to be in the $T_{\rm eff}$ range from 17000 - 25000 K, where optical metal…
We report the discovery of a new, polluted, magnetic white dwarf in the Luyten survey of high-proper motion stars. High-dispersion spectra of NLTT 7547 reveal a complex heavy element line spectrum in a cool (~5 200 K) hydrogen-dominated…
We present a new model atmosphere analysis of the most metal contaminated white dwarf known, the DBZ SDSS J073842.56+183509.06. Using new high resolution spectroscopic observations taken with Keck and Magellan, we determine precise…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has created a knowledge gap between the Northern and the Southern hemispheres which is very marked for white dwarfs: only $\simeq 15$% of the known white dwarfs are south of the equator. Here we make use…
WD J2356$-$209 is a cool metal-polluted white dwarf whose visible spectrum is dominated by a strong and broad sodium feature. Although discovered nearly two decades ago, no detailed and realistic analysis of this star had yet been realized.…
We investigate the importance of the far red wing of the Lyman $ \alpha$ line of hydrogen in the atmospheres of cool white dwarfs of pure hydrogen composition. We find that this absorption process dominates all important sources of opacity…
The nature of the several microlensing events observed by the MACHO team towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is still a subject of debate. Low-mass substellar objects and stars with masses larger than ~M_{sun} have been ruled out as…