Related papers: Discovery of three self-lensing binaries from Kepl…

The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…

We determine the orbits of four double degenerate systems (DDs), composed of two white dwarfs, and of two white dwarf -- M dwarf binaries. The four DDs, WD1022+050, WD1428+373, WD1824+040, and WD2032+188, show orbital periods of 1.157155(5)…

We comment on a recent study reporting evidence for the general relativistic Lense-Thirring secular precession of the inclination $I$ of the orbital plane to the plane of the sky of the tight binary system PSR J1141-6545 made of a white…

Observations of accretion disks around young brown dwarfs have led to the speculation that they may form planetary systems similar to normal stars. While there have been several detections of planetary-mass objects around brown dwarfs…

More than 340 non-eclipsing binaries of A-F stars as primaries at intermediate periods (100-1000 d) were newly found by uninterrupted photometry with ultra high-precision taken over 4 yr by Kepler space mission via the phase modulation of…

Accreting white dwarfs are often found in close binary systems with orbital periods ranging from tens of minutes to several hours. In most cases, the accretion process is relatively steady, with significant modulations only occurring on…

We present the first results of a dedicated search for pulsating white dwarfs (WDs) in detached white dwarf plus main-sequence binaries. Candidate systems were selected from a catalogue of WD+MS binaries, based on the surface gravities and…

We measure the radial velocity curve of the eclipsing detached white dwarf binary NLTT 11748. The primary exhibits velocity variations with a semi-amplitude of 273 km/s and an orbital period of 5.641 hr. We do not detect any spectral…

We present three new eclipsing white-dwarf / M-dwarf binary systems discovered during a search for transiting planets around M-dwarfs. Unlike most known eclipsing systems of this type, the optical and infrared emission is dominated by the…

Stellar lightcurves from edge-on double white dwarf systems(DWDs) have periodic lensing/eclipsing signals at times of alignment between two components as seen by the observer. Here, we study the characterization and detection of these…

We present the analysis of OGLE-2016-BLG-0613, for which the lensing light curve appears to be that of a typical binary-lens event with two caustic spikes but with a discontinuous feature on the trough between the spikes. We find that the…

Light curve modulations in the sample of Kepler planet candidates allows the disentangling of the nature of the transiting object by photometrically measuring its mass. This is possible by detecting the effects of the gravitational pull of…

White dwarfs are the burnt out cores of Sun-like stars and are the final fate of 97% of all stars in our Galaxy. The internal structure and composition of white dwarfs are hidden by their high gravities, which causes all elements, apart…

We identify 231 objects in the newly released Cycle 0 dataset from the Kepler Mission as double-eclipse, detached eclipsing binary systems with Teff < 5500 K and orbital periods shorter than ~32 days. We model each light curve using the…

We investigate the possibility of detecting planetary or stellar companions orbiting white dwarf binaries using the LISA gravitational radiation detector. Specifically, we consider the acceleration of the barycenter of the white dwarf…

Do white dwarfs host asteroid systems? Although several lines of argument suggest that white dwarfs may be orbited by large populations of asteroids, transits would provide the most direct evidence. We demonstrate that the Kepler mission…

Optical observations of the companions of pulsars can help determine the properties of the binaries, as well as those of their components, and give clues to the preceding evolution. In this review, we first describe the different classes of…

Double white dwarfs (DWDs) are by far the most common compact binaries in the Milky Way, are important low-frequency gravitational-wave sources, and in some cases merge to become Type Ia supernovae. So far, no DWD has been identified solely…

We present a long-term programme for timing the eclipses of white dwarfs in close binaries to measure apparent and/or real variations in their orbital periods. Our programme includes 67 close binaries, both detached and semi-detached and…

We consider the gravitational magnification of light for binary systems containing two compact objects: white dwarfs, a white dwarf and a neutron star or a white dwarf and a black hole. Light curves of the flares of the white dwarf caused…