Related papers: Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs
Brown dwarfs -- substellar bodies more massive than planets but not massive enough to initiate the sustained hydrogen fusion that powers self-luminous stars -- are born hot and slowly cool as they age. As they cool below about 2,300 K,…
Light-shining-through-walls experiments are the search experiments for weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) with the smallest model dependence. They have the advantage that not only the detection, but also the production of the WISPs…
So far no diffuse emissions in dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way have ever been observed. Given that dwarf galaxies are predominantly composed of Dark Matter, the discovery of these signals could offer valuable insights into…
White dwarfs and neutron stars are stellar objects with masses comparable to that of our sun. However, as the endpoint stages of stellar evolution, these objects do not sustain any thermonuclear burning and therefore can no longer support…
Boson stars are descendants of the so-called geons of Wheeler, except that they are built from scalar particles instead of electromagnetic fields. If scalar fields exist in nature, such localized configurations kept together by their…
The white dwarf luminosity function, which provides information about their cooling, has been measured with high precision in the past few years. Simulations that include well known Standard Model physics give a good fit to the data. This…
Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…
The current picture painted by the observations of circumstellar dust at white dwarfs, and the consequent atmospheric pollution, is of a surviving planetary system. This chapter recounts in detail both the discovery and empirical…
Since white dwarfs are small, the contrast between the thermal emission of an orbiting object and a white dwarf is dramatically enhanced compared to a main sequence host. Furthermore, rocky objects much smaller than the moon have no…
Tidal dwarf galaxies form during the interaction, collision or merger of massive spiral galaxies. They can resemble "normal" dwarf galaxies in terms of mass, size, and become dwarf satellites orbiting around their massive progenitor. They…
The proposed infrared space interferometry mission Darwin has two main aims: (i) to detect and characterize exo-planets similar to the Earth, and (ii) to carry out astrophysical imaging in the wavelength range 6 - 20 micron at a sensitivity…
With the first observations of debris disks as well as proposed planets around white dwarfs, the question of how rocky planets around such stellar remnants can be characterized and probed for signs of life becomes tangible. White dwarfs are…
Compact objects occupy a pivotal role in the exploration of Nature. The interest spans from the role of compact objects in astrophysics to their detection through various methods (gravitational waves interferometry, microlensing, imaging).…
In the context of the standard model of particle physics, there is a definite upper limit to the density of stable compact stars. However, if there is a deeper layer of constituents, below that of quarks and leptons, stability may be…
We present a versatile transit simulator aimed at generating light curves for arbitrarily shaped objects transiting stars. Utilizing a Monte Carlo algorithm, it accurately models the stellar flux blocked by these objects, producing precise…
Recent studies show the possibility of the formation of fairly regular and global spiral patterns in dwarf galaxies (dS type). Our sample of observed dwarf objects of this class also includes galaxies with a central stellar bar. The…
In about last couple of decades, the inference of the violation of the Chandrasekhar mass-limit of white dwarfs from indirect observation is probably a revolutionary discovery in astronomy. Various researchers have already proposed…
We review numerical work carried out over the last decade on the role of environmental mechanisms in shaping the nature of the faintest galaxies known, dwarf spheroidals (dSphs). In particular we discuss a model in which dSphs originated…
White dwarfs are one of the few types of stellar objects for which we know almost nothing about the possible existence of companion planets. Recent evidence for metal contaminated atmospheres, circumstellar debris disks and transiting…
Recent studies reveal that more than a dozen of white dwarfs displaying near-perfect blackbody spectra in the optical range have been lurking in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey catalog. We point out that, in a way analogous to the Cosmic…