Related papers: Prospects for cool white dwarf science from Pan-ST…
This White Paper to the National Academy of Sciences Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee highlights cross-disciplinary science opportunities over the next decade with cold brown dwarfs, sources defined here as having photospheric…
The Gaia optical observations are not the most suitable spectral domain for studying the low-mass, faintest and reddest part of the main sequence. Nevertheless, the large number of objects observed with an unprecedented precision, including…
Our knowledge of the Galaxy is being revolutionised by a series of photometric, spectroscopic and astrometric surveys. Already an enormous body of data is available from completed surveys, and data of ever increasing quality and richness…
We present Spitzer 5-15 micron spectroscopy of one cool white dwarf and 3.6-8 micron photometry of 51 cool white dwarfs with T_eff < 6000 K. The majority of our targets have accurate BVRIJHK photometry and trigonometric parallax…
The history of stellar seismology suggests that observation and theory often take turns advancing our understanding. The recent tripling of the sample of pulsating white dwarfs generated by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey represents a giant…
White dwarf planetary science is a rapidly growing field of research featuring a diverse set of observations and theoretical explorations. Giant planets, minor planets, and debris discs have all been detected orbiting white dwarfs. The…
We discuss some of the main open issues in the evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei which can be solved by the sensitive, wide area surveys to be performed by the proposed Wide Field X-ray Telescope mission.
We describe a near-IR photometric search for cool red dwarf companions to hot EUV-detected white dwarfs (WDs). While some composite systems have been found optically among WDs detected in recent EUV All-Sky Surveys, we develop an IR…
Surveys for nearby low-luminosity dwarfs tend to avoid the crowded regions of the Galactic Plane. We have devised near-infrared colour-magnitude and colour-colour selection criteria designed to identify late-type M and early-type L dwarfs…
We present the first spectra obtained with the Very Large Telescope for white dwarfs in a globular cluster. Estimates of atmospheric parameters are obtained and compared to evolutionary tracks. We discuss possible implications for the…
Dwarf galaxies make ideal laboratories to test galaxy evolution paradigms and cosmological models. Detailed studies of dwarfs across the spectrum allow us to gauge the efficacy of astrophysical processes at play in the lowest mass halos…
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) is unique among the existing or planned major ground-based optical survey systems as the only "distributed aperture" system. The concept of increasing system \'etendue by…
The spectroscopic features of white dwarfs are formed in the thin upper layer of their stellar photosphere. These features carry information about the white dwarf's surface temperature, surface gravity, and chemical composition (hereafter…
White dwarfs are a class of stars with unique physical properties. They present many challenging problems whose solution requires the application of advanced theories of dense matter, state-of-the-art experimental techniques, and extensive…
We investigate the potential of high-precision astrometry with GAIA for detection of giant planetary companions to nearby white dwarfs. If one considers that, to date, no confirmed planets around single white dwarfs are known, the results…
Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations have unveiled the white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge. Although the degenerate sequence can be well fitted employing the most up-to-date theoretical cooling sequences, observations…
Our aim is to compile a catalog of white dwarfs within 40 parsecs of the Sun, in which newly discovered objects would significantly increase the completeness of the current census. White dwarf candidates are identified from the SUPERBLINK…
The vast majority of stars that populate the Universe will end their evolution as white-dwarf stars. Applications of white dwarfs include cosmochronology, evolution of planetary systems, and also as laboratories to study non-standard…
White dwarfs with metal lines in their spectra act as signposts for post-main sequence planetary systems. Searching the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 12, we have identified 231 cool (<9000 K) DZ white dwarfs with strong metal…
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…