Related papers: Brown Dwarf Companions to White Dwarfs

I report the results of a survey for low-mass (0.030 <~ M <~ 0.013 M_solar) brown dwarfs in the direction of the TW Hya association using 2MASS. Two late-M dwarfs show signs of low surface gravity and are strong candidates to be young,…

We present a high-contrast imaging survey of intermediate-mass (1.75--4.5 $M_\odot$) stars to search for the most extreme stellar binaries, i.e., for the lowest mass stellar companions. Using adaptive optics at the Lick and Gemini…

I review what properties of the white-dwarf companions of recycled pulsars can be inferred from optical observations, and discuss how these can help us understand the characteristics and evolution of these binaries. I focus on spectroscopic…

We report on second-epoch imaging of two candidate planet-hosting white dwarfs stars, WD2105-82 and WD1202-232. Both stars showed evidence of resolved, planet-mass candidate companions in observations using the MIRI mid-infrared imager on…

The aim of the Degenerate Objects around Degenerate Objects (DODO) survey is to search for very low mass brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets in wide orbits around white dwarfs via direct imaging. The direct detection of such companions…

The fraction of white dwarfs found in wide binaries is estimated by cross referencing a catalogue of wide binaries with catalogues photometrically determined white-dwarf candidates and spectroscopically confirmed white dwarf stars. The…

WISE J104915.57-531906.1 A+B and WISE J085510.83-071442.5 were recently discovered as the third and fourth closest known systems to the Sun, respectively (2.0 and 2.3 pc). The former consists of a L8+T0.5 binary and the latter is a probable…

The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (MUCHFUSS) aims at finding hot subdwarf stars with massive compact companions like massive white dwarfs (M > 1.0 Msun), neutron stars or stellar mass black…

Using two epochs of 4.5um images from the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope, we recently identified a common proper motion companion to the white dwarf WD 0806-661 that is a candidate for the coldest known…

We present radial velocity observations of four extremely low-mass (0.2 Msol) white dwarfs. All four stars show peak-to-peak radial velocity variations of 540 - 710 km/s with 1.0 - 5.9 hr periods. The optical photometry rules out…

The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (MUCHFUSS) aims at finding hot subdwarf stars (sdBs) with massive compact companions such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, or stellar-mass black holes. In a…

We have observed the eclipsing, post-common envelope white dwarf-brown dwarf binary, SDSS141126.20+200911.1, in the near-IR with the HAWK-I imager, and present here the first direct detection of the dark side of an irradiated brown dwarf in…

We report on our analysis of HST/NICMOS snapshot high resolution images of 255 stars in 201 systems within ~10 parsecs of the Sun. Photometry was obtained through filters F110W, F180M, F207M, and F222M using NICMOS Camera 2. These filters…

Binary statistics of the latest-type T and Y brown dwarfs are sparse and it is unclear whether the trends seen in the multiplicity properties of their more massive counterparts hold for the very coolest brown dwarfs. We present results from…

Star formation theories have struggled to reproduce binary brown dwarf population demographics (frequency, separation, mass-ratio). Kernel-phase interferometry is sensitive to companions at separations inaccessible to classical imaging,…

Binaries of two white dwarfs (WDs) are an important class of astrophysical objects that are theorized to lead to Type Ia supernovae and are also used to gain insight into complex processes involved in stellar binary evolution. We report the…

The white dwarf Giclas 29-38 has attracted much attention due to its large infrared excess and the suggestion that excess might be due to a companion brown dwarf. We observed this object using speckle interferometry at the Keck telescope,…

We present the discovery of only the third brown dwarf known to eclipse a non-accreting white dwarf. Gaia parallax information and multi-colour photometry confirm that the white dwarf is cool (9950$\pm$150K) and has a low mass…

Near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy is obtained for a heterogeneous sample of nearby white dwarfs with possible excess flux as identified primarily in the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Among the sample of 43 stars are a number of white…

We present the discovery of the shortest-period, non-interacting, white dwarf-brown dwarf post-common-envelope binary known. The K2 light curve shows the system, EPIC 21223532 has a period of 68.2 min and is not eclipsing, but does show a…