Related papers: Magnetic white dwarfs in post-common-envelope bina…
We explore the observational appearance of the merger of a low-mass star with a white dwarf (WD) binary companion. We are motivated by Schreiber et al. (2016), who found that multiple tensions between the observed properties of cataclysmic…
Results are presented for a Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys high-resolution imaging campaign of 90 white dwarfs with known or suspected low mass stellar and substellar companions. Of the 72 targets which remain candidate…
We provide a detailed characterization of 2M07515777+1807352, a post-common envelope eclipsing binary system with a 10.3 d, nearly, but not quite, circular orbit (e = 0.02). This system consists of a massive white dwarf (WD) ($1.08$…
We present an analysis of the most massive white dwarf candidates in the Montreal White Dwarf Database 100 pc sample. We identify 25 objects that would be more massive than $1.3~M_{\odot}$ if they had pure H atmospheres and CO cores,…
Although 25%-50% of white dwarfs (WDs) display evidence for remnant planetary systems, their orbital architectures and overall sizes remain unknown. Vibrant close-in (~1 Solar radius) circumstellar activity is detected at WDs spanning many…
Sufficiently old white dwarfs cool down through a convective envelope that directly couples their degenerate cores to the surface. Magnetic fields may inhibit this convection by stiffening the criterion for convective instability. We…
Binaries of two white dwarfs (WDs) are an important class of astrophysical objects that are theorized to lead to Type Ia supernovae and are also used to gain insight into complex processes involved in stellar binary evolution. We report the…
The origin of strong magnetic fields in white dwarfs has been a puzzle for decades. Recently, a dynamo mechanism operating in rapidly rotating and crystallizing white dwarfs has been suggested to explain the occurrence rates of strong…
We analyse the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey light curves of 835 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarf plus main-sequence binaries from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with g<19, in search of new eclipsing systems. We identify…
We present phase-resolved spectroscopy of two new short period low accretion rate magnetic binaries, SDSSJ125044.42+154957.3 (Porb = 86 min) and SDSSJ151415.65+074446.5 (Porb = 89 min). Both systems were previously identified as magnetic…
White dwarfs (WDs) represent the final evolutionary stage of most stars, typically originating from progenitor stars with masses below approximately 8 $M_{\odot}$ to 10 $M_{\odot}$. Formation through single-star evolution generally requires…
One of the most important problems in the context of cataclysmic variables (CVs) is the lack of observations of systems with periods between 2 and 3.12 hours, known as the period gap. The orbital evolution of CVs with periods shorter than…
Hot subdwarfs in close binaries with either M dwarf, brown dwarf or white dwarf companions show unique light variations. In hot subdwarf binaries with M dwarf or brown dwarf companions we can observe the so-called reflection effect and in…
We present a catalog of periodic stellar variability in the "Stripe 82" region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). After aggregating and recalibrating catalog-level data from the survey, we ran a period-finding algorithm (Supersmoother)…
We report results from a continuation of our searches for high field magnetic white dwarfs paired in a detached binary with non degenerate companions. We made use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 catalog of Kleinman et al. (2013) with…
Over the last decade or so, we have been developing the possible existence of highly magnetized white dwarfs with analytical stellar structure models. While the primary aim was to explain the nature of the peculiar overluminous type Ia…
We report the discovery of 1RXS J173006.4+033813, a polar cataclysmic variable with a period of 120.21 min. The white dwarf primary has a magnetic field of B = 42+6-5 MG, and the secondary is a M3 dwarf. The system shows highly symmetric…
The identification and characterization of massive ($\gtrsim 0.8~M_\odot$) white dwarfs is challenging in part due to their low luminosity. Here we present two candidate single-lined spectroscopic binaries, Gaia DR3 4014708864481651840 and…
The population of compact binaries in dense stellar systems is affected strongly by frequent dynamical interactions between stars and their interplay with the stellar evolution. In this contribution, we consider these effects on binaries…
Stars are stretched by tidal interactions in tight binaries, and changes to their projected areas introduce photometric variations twice per orbit. Hermes et al. (2014, ApJ, 792, 39) utilized measurements of these ellipsoidal variations to…