Related papers: HD188112: Supernova Ia progenitor?
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can be used as the standard candlelight to determine the cosmological distances because they are thought to have a uniform fuel amount. Recent observations of several overluminous SNe Ia suggest that the white…
We report the discovery of an eclipsing binary - HS 0705+6700 - being an sdB star with a faint companion. From its light curve the orbital period of 8263.87 s, the mass ratio of the system q = 0.28, the inclination of 84.4 deg and other…
Type Iax supernovae represent the largest class of peculiar white-dwarf supernovae. The type Iax SN~2012Z in NGC 1309 is the only white dwarf supernova with a detected progenitor system in pre-explosion observations. Deep \textit{Hubble…
We report on the discovery of a white dwarf companion to the nearby late G dwarf star, HD 159062. The companion is detected in 14 years of precise radial velocity (RV) data, and in high-resolution imaging observations. RVs of HD 159062 from…
Hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) are core helium-burning stars located on the extreme horizontal branch. About half of the known sdB stars are found in close binaries. Their short orbital periods of 1.2 h to a few days suggest that they are post…
We examine the growing data set of binary millisecond pulsars that are thought to have a helium white dwarf companion. These systems are believed to form when a low- to intermediate-mass companion to a neutron star fills its Roche lobe…
We report on the detection of the two shortest period non-interacting white dwarf binary systems. These systems, SDSS J143633.29+501026.8 and SDSS J105353.89+520031.0, were identified by searching for radial velocity variations in the…
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…
Little is known about the existence of extrasolar planets around ultracool dwarfs. Furthermore, binary stars with Sun-like primaries and very low-mass binaries composed of ultracool dwarfs show differences in the distributions of mass ratio…
The visually close binary system HD25811 is analyzed to estimate its physical and geometrical parameters in addition to its spectral type and luminosity class. The method depends on obtaining the best fit between the entire observational…
Low mass white dwarfs are the remnants of disrupted red giant stars in binary millisecond pulsars and other exotic binary star systems. Some low mass white dwarfs cool rapidly, while others stay bright for millions of years due to stable…
We have analysed the EUVE spectrum of the DAO white dwarf RE J0720-318. In contrast to the optical spectrum, which can only be fitted with a homogeneously mixed atmosphere, we find the EUVE spectrum can only be matched with a stratified…
We searched for and found no higher mass (>3Msun) unbound binary stellar companions to the progenitor of pulsar J1124-5916. There are lower mass candidates, but they all have high probabilities of being false positives. There are no…
We have considered 53 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT). None of the SNe Ia are individually detected at any time or in stacked images. Using these data and assuming that the SNe Ia are a homogeneous…
We have used phase-resolved high-resolution images and low resolution spectra taken at the ESO Very Large Telescope, to study the properties of the low-mass Helium White Dwarf companion to the millisecond pulsar \psr (hereafter COM…
The very young brown dwarf candidate ChaHa8 was recently discovered to have a close (~1AU) companion by means of radial velocity monitoring. We present additional radial velocity data obtained with UVES/VLT between 2007 and 2010, which…
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…
The planet-hosting and Sirius-type binary system epsilon Reticulum (HD 27442) is examined from the perspective of its more evolved white dwarf secondary. The stellar parameters are determined from a combination of Balmer line spectroscopy,…
We present first results from the Palomar Adaptive Optics Survey of Young Stars conducted at the Hale 5 m telescope. Through direct imaging we have discovered a brown dwarf and two low-mass stellar companions to the young solar-type stars…
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…