Related papers: Evolutionary sequences for hydrogen-deficient whit…
Most studies suggest the pollution of white dwarf (WD) atmospheres arises from accretion of minor planets, but the exact properties of polluting material, and in particular the evidence for water in some cases are not yet understood. Here…
The photospheres of the coolest helium-atmosphere white dwarfs are characterized by fluid-like densities. Under those conditions, standard approximations used in model atmosphere codes are no longer appropriate. Unfortunately, the majority…
A number of so-called ultra-cool white dwarfs have been detected in different surveys so far. However, based on anecdotal evidence it is believed that most or all of these ultra-cool white dwarfs are low-mass products of binary evolution…
We present follow-up spectroscopy and a detailed model atmosphere analysis of 29 wide double white dwarfs, including eight systems with a crystallized C/O core member. We use state-of-the-art evolutionary models to constrain the physical…
White dwarfs are compact objects with atmospheres containing mainly light elements, hydrogen or helium. Because of their surface high gravitational field, heavy elements diffuse downwards in a very short timescale compared to the…
We present a new generation of substellar atmosphere and evolution models, appropriate for application to studies of L, T, and Y-type brown dwarfs and self-luminous extrasolar planets. The atmosphere models describe the expected…
We discuss the importance of pure hydrogen white dwarf atmosphere models with Ly-$\rm \alpha$ far red wing opacity in the analysis of the white dwarf cooling sequence of the globular cluster NGC 6397. Our recently improved atmosphere models…
Some white dwarfs undergo significant changes in atmospheric composition owing to the diffusion and mixing of residual hydrogen in a helium-rich envelope. Of particular interest are a few objects exhibiting hydrogen and helium line…
White dwarfs are dense, cooling stellar embers consisting mostly of carbon and oxygen, or oxygen and neon (with a few percent carbon) at higher initial stellar masses. These stellar cores are enveloped by a shell of helium which in turn is…
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…
We investigate the dissociation equilibrium of $\rm H_2$ in very cool, helium-rich white dwarf atmospheres. We present the solution of the non-ideal chemical equilibrium for the dissociation of molecular hydrogen in a medium of dense…
We present a spectro-photometric analysis of 2880 cool white dwarfs within 100 pc of the Sun and cooler than Teff = 10,000 K, with grizy Pan-STARRS photometry and Gaia trigonometric parallaxes available. We also supplement our data sets…
Hydrogen-rich white dwarfs (WDs) comprise the majority of the WD population, but are only rarely found at the very hot end of the WD cooling sequence. A small subgroup that exhibits both hydrogen and helium lines in their spectra, the…
We present new spectroscopic and photometric measurements of the white dwarfs LHS 3250 and WD 0346+246. Along with F351-50, these white dwarfs are the coolest ones known, all with effective temperatures below 4000 K. Their membership in the…
We report on Keck and {\em Hubble Space Telescope} observations of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR B1855+09. We detect its white-dwarf companion and measure $\mv=25.90\pm0.12$ and $\mi=24.19\pm0.11$ (Vega system). From the…
A handful of white dwarfs with helium-dominated atmospheres contain exceptionally large masses of hydrogen in their convection zones, with the metal-polluted white dwarf GD 16 being one of the earliest recognised examples. We report the…
White dwarfs with helium-dominated atmospheres comprise approximately 20% of all white dwarfs. Among the open questions are the total masses and the origin of the hydrogen traces observed in a large number and the nature of the deficit of…
We continue our comprehensive theoretical investigation of the spectral evolution of white dwarfs based on sophisticated simulations of element transport. In this paper, we focus on the transformation of PG 1159 stars into DO/DB white…
The results of a NLTE model atmosphere analysis of 27 hydrogen-rich central stars of old planetary nebulae (PN) are reported. These stars were selected from a previous paper in this series, where we gave classifications for a total of 38…
We present optical spectroscopy and near-infrared photometry of 126 cool white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our sample includes high proper motion targets selected using the SDSS and USNO-B astrometry and a dozen…