Related papers: The massive hot subdwarf binary LAMOST J065816.72+…
Binary systems made by a low-mass CO WD and a He-donor represent possible progenitors of explosive events via He-detonation, producing low-luminosity thermonuclear Supernovae with a peculiar nucleosynthetis. Recently, the binary system PTF…
Hot subdwarf stars (sdO/Bs) are evolved core helium-burning stars with very thin hydrogen envelopes, which can be formed by common envelope ejection. Close sdB binaries with massive white dwarf (WD) companions are potential progenitors of…
Approximately 150 low-mass white dwarfs, with masses below 0.4Msun, have been discovered. The majority of these low-mass WDs are observed in binary systems as they cannot be formed through single-star evolution within the Hubble time. In…
Helium-burning hot subdwarf stars of spectral types O and B (sdO/B) are thought to be produced through various types of binary interaction. The helium-rich hot subdwarf star EC22536-5304 was recently found to be extremely enriched in lead.…
With Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor astrometry and previously published radial velocity measures we explore the exoplanetary system HD 202206. Our modeling results in a parallax, $\pi_{abs} = 21.96\pm0.12$ milliseconds of arc,…
We present a set of white dwarf-main sequence (WDMS) binaries identified spectroscopically from the Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) pilot survey. We develop a color…
The nature of the progenitors of type Ia supernovae is still under controversial debate. KPD 1930+2752 is one of the best SN Ia progenitor candidates known today. The object is a double degenerate system consisting of a subluminous B star…
We identify SDSS J153636.22+044127.0, a QSO discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, as a promising candidate for a binary black hole system. This QSO has two broad-line emission systems separated by 3500 km/sec. The redder system at…
Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original "black widow", the 8-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20), high energy emission originating from the…
We report the discovery of SDSS~J022932.28+713002.7, a nascent extremely low-mass (ELM) white dwarf (WD) orbiting a massive ($> 1\,M_\odot$ at 2$\sigma$ confidence) companion with a period of 36 hours. We use a combination of spectroscopy,…
We report the discovery of ZTF J0127+5258, a compact mass-transferring binary with an orbital period of 13.7 minutes. The system contains a white dwarf accretor, which likely originated as a post-common envelope carbon-oxygen (CO) white…
HD 49798/RX J0648.0--4418 is a peculiar X-ray binary with a hot subdwarf (sdO) mass donor. The nature of the accreting compact object is not known, but its spin period $P=13.2$~s and $\dot P =-2.15 \times 10^{-15}$s~s$^{-1}$, prove that it…
The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (muchfuss) aims to discover subdwarf-B stars with massive compact companions such as overmassive white dwarfs (M > 1.0 M_sun), neutron stars or black holes.…
Ultra-short period compact binaries are important sources of gravitational waves, which include e.g. the progenitors of type Ia supernovae or the progenitors of merger episodes that may lead to massive and magnetic single white dwarfs.…
We present precise parameters for two compact double white dwarf binaries, SDSS J232230.20+050942.0 (J2322+0509) and SDSS J063449.92+380352.2 (J0634+3803), with orbital periods of 20 and 26.5 minutes, respectively. These systems will serve…
We report photometry of 1RXS J232953.9+062814, a recently discovered dwarf nova with a remarkably short 64.2-minute orbital period. In quiescence, the star's light curve is that of a double sinusoid, arising from the "ellipsoidal"…
Extremely low mass white dwarfs are very rare objects likely formed in compact binary systems. We present MMT optical spectroscopy of 42 low mass white dwarf candidates serendipitously discovered in a survey for hypervelocity B-type stars.…
In the course of our search for double degenerate (DD) binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the UVES spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor surveY - SPY) we discovered HE2209-1444 to be a double-lined…
We report the detection of orbital decay in the 12.75-min, detached binary white dwarf (WD) SDSS J065133.338+284423.37 (hereafter J0651). Our photometric observations over a 13-month baseline constrain the orbital period to 765.206543(55) s…
Single-line spectroscopic binaries recently contribute to the stellar-mass black hole discovery, independently of the X-ray transient method. We report the identification of a single-line binary system LTD064402+245919, with an orbital…