Related papers: Binary Star Orbits. V. The Nearby White Dwarf - Re…
The white dwarf LHS 3236 (WD1639+153) is shown to be a double-degenerate binary, with each component having a high mass. Astrometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory gives a parallax and distance of 30.86 +/- 0.25 pc and a tangential velocity…
Characterizing the local space density of double degenerate binary systems is a complementary approach to broad sky surveys of double degenerates to determine the expected rates of white dwarf binary mergers, in particular those that may…
We report the discovery of 24 spectroscopic binary companions to giant stars. We fully constrain the orbital solution for 6 of these systems. We cannot unambiguously derive the orbital elements for the remaining stars because the phase…
We report the discovery of a nearby massive white dwarf with He-H atmosphere. The white dwarf is located at a distance of $74.5\pm0.9$ pc. Its radius, mass, effective temperature, H/He ratio and age are $R=2500\pm100$ km, $M=1.33\pm0.01$…
Pulsars in close, eccentric binary systems are usually assumed to have another neutron star as a companion. These double neutron star binaries have proven to be the best laboratories for experimental General Relativity and are the most…
We have discovered two recycled pulsars in relativistic orbits as part of the first high-frequency survey of intermediate Galactic latitudes. PSR J1157-5112 is a 44 ms pulsar and the first recycled pulsar with an ultra-massive (M > 1.14 Mo)…
We report photometric observations of the eclipsing close binary CSS21055 (SDSS J141126+200911) that strongly suggest that the companion to the carbon-oxygen white dwarf is a brown dwarf with a mass between 0.030 and 0.074 Msun. The…
We present radial velocity observations of four binary white dwarf candidates identified through their over-luminosity. We identify two new double-lined spectroscopic binary systems, WD 0311-649 and WD 1606+422, and constrain their orbital…
Being the first of its kind, the white dwarf WD 1145+017 exhibits a complex system of disintegrating debris which offers a unique opportunity to study its disruption process in real time. Even with plenty of transit observations there are…
Measuring the mass-radius relation of individual white dwarfs is an empirically challenging task that has been performed for only a few dozen stars. We measure the white dwarf mass-radius relation using gravitational redshifts and radii of…
We present recent measurements of the orbital motion in the binaries, DF Tau and ZZ Tau, and in the triples, Elias 12, T Tau, and V853 Oph. We observed these systems with the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope and with…
In the course of our search for double degenerate binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the UVES spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor surveY - SPY) we discovered that the sdB star HE 1047-0436 is radial…
PSR J1738+0333 is one of the four millisecond pulsars known to be orbited by a white dwarf companion bright enough for optical spectroscopy. Of these, it has the shortest orbital period, making it especially interesting for a range of…
We report the discovery of companions to 5 nearby late M dwarfs (>M5), LHS1901, LHS4009, LHS6167, LP869-26 and WT460, and we confirm that the recently discovered mid-T brown dwarf companion to SCR1845-6357 is physically bound to that star.…
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…
I introduce the two classes of pulsar, white-dwarf binaries, and describe for each what we have learned from a specific system, PSR J1012+5307 and PSR B0655+64, respectively, summarising what has been done, presenting new results, and…
We present the first time resolved medium resolution optical spectroscopy of the recently identified peculiar Intermediate Polar (IP) 1RXSJ154814.5-452845, which allows us to precisely determine the binary orbital period…
We present photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic observations of the nearby (9.8 pc) low-mass binary Gl 569Bab (in turn being a companion to the early-M star Gl 569A), made with the Keck adaptive optics facility. Having observed Gl…
We report the discovery of a rare close binary system, SMSS J160639.78-100010.7, comprised of a magnetic white dwarf with a field of about 30 MG and a brown dwarf. We measured an orbital period of 92 min which is consistent with the…
W UMi is a near contact, semi-detached, double-lined eclipsing binary star with an orbital period of 1.7 days. Simultaneous analysis of new BVR multi-color light curves and radial velocity data yields the main astrophysical parameters of…