Related papers: The progenitor of a type Ia supernova with a short…
We report the results of XMM-Newton observations of HD49798/RXJ0648.0-4418, the only known X-ray binary consisting of a hot sub-dwarf and a white dwarf. The white dwarf rotates very rapidly (P=13.2 s) and has a dynamically measured mass of…
An XMM-Mewton observation performed in May 2008 has confirmed that the 13 seconds pulsations in the X-ray binary HD 49798/RX J0648.0-4418 are due to a rapidly rotating white dwarf. From the pulse time delays induced by the 1.55 days orbital…
I review the properties and discuss some of the puzzling aspects of the unique binary system composed of the luminous hot subdwarf HD 49798 and a white dwarf with mass of 1.2 solar masses and spin period of 13.2 s. This is one of the few…
HD 49798/RX J0648.0--4418 is a peculiar X-ray binary with a hot subdwarf (sdO) mass donor. The nature of the accreting compact object is not known, but its spin period $P=13.2$~s and $\dot P =-2.15 \times 10^{-15}$s~s$^{-1}$, prove that it…
HD49798 / RXJ0648.0-4418 is the only confirmed X-ray binary in which the mass donor is a hot subdwarf star of O spectral type and, most likely, it contains a massive white dwarf (1.28$\pm$0.05 M$_{\rm SUN}$) with a very fast spin period of…
RX J0648.0-4418 is a post common-envelope X-ray binary composed of a hot subdwarf and one of the most massive white dwarfs with a dynamical mass measurement (1.28+/-0.05 M_sun). This white dwarf, with a spin period of 13.2 s, rotates more…
Supernova Ia are bright explosive events that can be used to estimate cosmological distances, allowing us to study the expansion of the Universe. They are understood to result from a thermonuclear detonation in a white dwarf that formed…
The X-ray source RX J0648.0-4418 is the only confirmed binary system in which a compact object, most likely a massive white dwarf, accretes from a hot subdwarf companion, the bright sdO star HD 49798. The X-ray emission from this system is…
We report on the results we obtained with XMM-Newton observations of HD49798 and BD+37 442, the only two sdO stars for which X-ray emission has been observed so far. HD is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with orbital period of 1.5 days.…
HD 49798 is a hydrogen depleted subdwarf O6 star and has an X-ray pulsating companion (RX J0648.0-4418). The X-ray pulsating companion is a massive white dwarf. Employing Eggleton's stellar evolution code with the optically thick wind…
We report on the discovery of the shortest period binary comprising a hot subdwarf star (CD-30 11223, GALEX J1411-3053) and a massive unseen companion. Photometric data from the All Sky Automated Survey show ellipsoidal variations of the…
We review the X-ray observations of hot subdwarf stars. While no X-ray emission has been detected yet from binaries containing B-type subdwarfs, interesting results have been obtained in the case of the two luminous O-type subdwarfs HD…
In the course of our search for double degenerate (DD) binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the UVES spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor surveY - SPY) we discovered that the white dwarf HE 1414-0848 is…
The bright subdwarf-O star (sdO), HD 49798, is in a 1.55 day orbit with a compact companion that is spinning at 13.2 seconds. Using the measurements of the effective temperature ($T_{\rm eff}$), surface gravity ($\log g$), and surface…
HD 49798 is a hot subdwarf of O spectral type in a 1.55 day orbit with the X-ray source RX J0648.0-4418, a compact object with spin period of 13.2 s. We use recent data from the NICER instrument, joined with archival data from XMM-Newton…
We report the discovery of an extremely close, eclipsing binary system. A white dwarf is orbited by a core He-burning compact hot subdwarf star with a period as short as $\simeq0.04987 {\rm d}$ making this system the most compact hot…
White dwarfs typically have masses in a narrow range centered at about 0.6 solar masses (Msun). Only a few ultra-massive white dwarfs (M>1.2 Msun) are known. Those in binary systems are of particular interest because a small amount of…
We report the discovery of ZTF J0127+5258, a compact mass-transferring binary with an orbital period of 13.7 minutes. The system contains a white dwarf accretor, which likely originated as a post-common envelope carbon-oxygen (CO) white…
We investigate the evolution of a binary system which initially has an orbital period of 2^h 17^m and contains a 0.5 M_sun helium star with a white dwarf companion of 0.97 M_sun, similarly to suggested SN Ia candidate progenitor KPD…
The hot subdwarf HD 49798 has an X-ray emitting compact companion with a spin-period of 13.2 s and a dynamically measured mass of 1.28+/-0.05 M_sun, consistent with either a neutron star or a white dwarf. Using all the available XMM-Newton…