Related papers: The Initial-Final Mass Relation among White Dwarfs…
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…
We have presented 309 new white-dwarf (WD) + main-sequence (MS) star binaries identified from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Tenth Data Release (DR10). The majority of them consist of a white dwarf and a low-mass secondary (typically M…
We revisit the properties and astrophysical implications of the field white dwarf mass distribution in preparation of Gaia applications. Our study is based on the two samples with the best established completeness and most precise…
The bright, nearby DA-type white dwarf (WD) 40 Eridani B is orbited by the M dwarf 40 Eri C, allowing determination of the WD's mass. Until recently, however, the mass depended on orbital elements determined four decades ago, and that mass…
White dwarfs which exhibit transit signatures of planetary debris and accreted planetary material provide exceptional opportunities to probe the material composition and dynamical structure of planetary systems. Although previous…
White dwarfs (WDs) offer unrealized potential in solving two problems in astrophysics: stellar age accuracy and precision. WD cooling ages can be inferred from surface temperatures and radii, which can be constrained with precision by high…
We present new determinations of effective temperature, surface gravity, and masses for a sample of 46 hot DA white dwarfs selected from the EUVE and ROSAT Wide Field Camera bright source lists in the course of a near-IR survey for low mass…
The purpose of this work is to present accurate and detailed mass-radius relations for white dwarf (WD) models with helium, carbon, oxygen, silicon and iron cores, by using a fully updated stellar evolutionary code. We considered masses…
There is a striking and unexplained dearth of brown dwarf companions in close orbits (< 3AU) around stars more massive than the Sun, in stark contrast to the frequency of stellar and planetary companions. Although rare and relatively…
The mass-radius relation of white dwarfs is largely determined by the equation of state of degenerate electrons, which causes the stellar radius to decrease as mass increases. Here we observationally measure this relation using the…
The semi-empirical initial-final mass relation (IFMR) connects spectroscopically analyzed white dwarfs in star clusters to the initial masses of the stars that formed them. Most current stellar evolution models, however, predict that stars…
We use the results of realistic N-body simulations to investigate the appearance of the white dwarf population in dense star clusters. We show that the presence of a substantial binary population in a star cluster, and the interaction of…
W UMa type binaries have two defining characteristics. These are (i) the effective temperatures of both components are very similar, and (ii) the secondary (currently less massive) component is overluminous for its current mass. We consider…
White dwarfs (WDs) are powerful tools to study the evolutionary history of stars and binaries in the Galaxy. But do we understand their multiplicity from a theoretical point of view? This can be tested by a comparison with the sample of WDs…
The Sirius AB binary system has masses that are well determined from many decades of astrometric measurements. Because of the well-measured radius and luminosity of Sirius A, we employed the TYCHO stellar evolution code to determine the age…
We present a new model for the Galactic population of close double white dwarfs. The model accounts for the suggestion of the avoidance of a substantial spiral-in during mass transfer between a giant and a main-sequence star of comparable…
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 mass-radius relationship of white dwarfs (WDs) is one of their defining characteristics, largely derived from electron degeneracy pressure. We present a model-independent study of the observed mass-radius relationship in WD binaries of…
Seven ultra low-mass and small-radius white dwarfs (LSPM J0815+1633, LP 240-30, BD+20 5125B, LP 462-12, WD J1257+5428, 2MASS J13453297+4200437, and SDSS J085557.46+053524.5) have been recently identified with masses ranging from $\sim$0.02…
We have used multi-epoch images from the Infrared Array Camera on board the Spitzer Space Telescope to search for substellar companions to stars in the solar neighborhood based on common proper motions. Through this work, we have discovered…