Related papers: White dwarf cooling sequences and cosmochronology
In the course of their evolution, white-dwarf stars go through at least one phase of variability in which the global pulsations they undergo allow astronomers to peer into their interiors, this way making possible to shed light on their…
It has been shown that the shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs can be a powerful tool to check for the possible existence of DFSZ-axions. In particular, Isern et al. (2008) showed that, if the axion mass is of the order of a…
Aims: We study single and binary white dwarfs in the inner halo of the Milky Way in order to learn more about the conditions under which the population of halo stars was born, such as the initial mass function (IMF), the star formation…
We present new white dwarf evolutionary sequences for low-metallicity progenitors. White dwarf sequences have been derived from full evolutionary calculations that take into account the entire history of progenitor stars, including the…
We present an update of our on-going effort to improve the precision of white dwarf cosmochronology via careful analyses of white dwarf photometry in open clusters. To improve the precision of white dwarf and main sequence age analysis, we…
The evolution of planetary systems around white dwarfs is crucial to understanding the presence of planetary material in the atmospheres of white dwarfs. These systems uniquely probe exoplanetary compositions. Periodic signals in the…
Recent determinations of the white dwarf luminosity function (WDLF) from very large surveys have extended our knowledge of the WDLF to very high luminosities. It has been shown that the shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs…
We describe a new multi-colour proper motion survey for cool white dwarfs (CWDs). The observational database consists of ~300 digitally scanned Schmidt plates in ESO/SERC field 287. The entire survey procedure, from the raw Schmidt plate…
We present a coherent and detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the population of hot white dwarfs. We assess the statistical significance of the hot end of the white dwarf luminosity function and the role played by the bolometric corrections…
We set up a model for the evolution of the galaxy luminosity function, taking advantage of recent work that brought in some better understanding of the mass function for gravitationally condensed objects. The physics of cooling of the…
I present an algorithm for inverting the luminosity function for white dwarfs to obtain a maximum likelihood estimate of the star formation rate of the host stellar population. The algorithm is of the general class of Expectation…
From data collection to photometric fitting and analysis of white dwarfs to generating a white dwarf luminosity function requires numerous Astrophysical, Mathematical and Computational domain knowledge. The steep learning curve makes it…
Using WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have isolated a sample of 258 white dwarfs (WDs) in the Galactic globular cluster M4. Fields at three radial distances from the cluster center were observed and sizeable WD populations were…
Since the Gaia data release 2, several works were published describing a bifurcation in the observed white dwarf colour$-$magnitude diagram for $\mbox{$G_{\mathrm{BP}}$}-\mbox{$G_{\mathrm{RP}}$} > 0$. Some possible explanations in the…
In order to understand the dynamical and chemical evolution of our Galaxy it is of fundamental importance to study the local neighborhood. White dwarf stars are ideal candidates to probe the history of the solar neighborhood, since these…
White dwarfs represent the last stage of evolution of stars with mass less than about eight times that of the Sun and, like other stars, are often found in binaries. If the orbital period of the binary is short enough, energy losses from…
Recently, a new class of white dwarfs (``slowly cooling WDs'') has been identified in the globular cluster M13. The cooling time of these stars is increased by stable thermonuclear hydrogen burning in their residual envelope. These WDs are…
Recent surveys of close white dwarf binaries as well as single white dwarfs have provided evidence for the late appearance of magnetic fields in white dwarfs, and a possible generation mechanism a crystallization and rotation-driven dynamo…
White dwarfs represent the most common end stage of stellar evolution and are important for a range of astrophysical questions. The high-resolution ultraviolet spectroscopic capability of the Habitable World Observatory (HWO) offers a…
The galactic halo likely grew over time in part by assembling smaller galaxies, the so-called building blocks. We investigate if the properties of these building blocks are reflected in the halo white dwarf (WD) population in the Solar…