Related papers: Stellar Forensics I: Cooling Curves
White dwarfs which exhibit transit signatures of planetary debris and accreted planetary material provide exceptional opportunities to probe the material composition and dynamical structure of planetary systems. Although previous…
We present results of timing measurements of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J2145-0750. Combining timing data obtained with the Effelsberg and Lovell radio telescopes we measure a significant timing parallax of 2.0(6) mas placing the…
Millisecond pulsar (MSP) binaries are unique laboratories for studying matter and radiation under extreme conditions that are unattainable on Earth. Recent detections of optical millisecond pulsations from three systems in distinct…
We investigate in detail the white dwarf cooling sequence of the globular cluster Messier 4. In particular we study the influence of various systematic uncertainties, both observational and theoretical, on the determination of the cluster…
We investigate the evolution of cooling helium atmosphere white dwarfs using a full evolutionary code, specifically developed for following the effects of element diffusion and gravitational settling on white dwarf cooling. The major…
Observations show a large spread in the luminosities of young protostars, which are frequently explained in the context of episodic accretion. We here test this scenario using numerical simulations following the collapse of a solar mass…
Optical flares have been observed from magnetically active stars for many decades; unsurprisingly, the spectra and temporal evolution are complicated. For example, the shortcomings of optically thin, static slab models have long been…
The masses and temperatures of young low mass stars and brown dwarfs in star- forming regions are not yet well established because of uncertainties in the age of individual objects and the spectral type vs. temperature scale appropriate for…
In the currently accepted paradigm, dark matter is hypothesized as an explanation of the flat rotation curves of galaxies under the assumption of virialized orbits. The use of millisecond pulsar timing as a probe of Galactic dark matter…
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…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are believed to be very old neutron stars (NSs) whose age may exceed significantly $10^8$ yrs. Although cooling scenarios of isolated NSs predict for that age a surface temperature $T_s\sim 10^4$ K, observations…
The evolution of white dwarfs is essentially a cooling process that depends primarily on the energy stored in their degenerate cores and on the transparency of their envelopes. In this paper we compute accurate cooling sequences for…
Binary millisecond pulsars (BMSPs) are thought to have evolved from low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). If the mass transfer in LMXBs is driven by nuclear evolution of the donor star, the final orbital period is predicted to be well correlated…
The white dwarf luminosity function of a stellar cluster will have a sharp truncation at a luminosity which is determined by the time since formation of the first white dwarfs in that cluster. Calculation of the dependence of this limiting…
Although the first millisecond pulsars (MSPs) were discovered 30 years ago we still do not understand all details of their formation process. Here, we present new results from Tauris, Langer & Kramer (2012) on the recycling scenario leading…
We report on optical observations of the low-mass binary millisecond pulsar systems J0034-0534 and J2145-0750. A faint (I=23.5) object was found to be coincident with the timing position of PSR J2145-0750. While a galaxy or distant…
We summarise recent progress in the understanding of the rotational evolution of low-mass stars (here defined as solar mass down to the hydrogen burning limit) both in terms of observations and modelling. Wide-field imaging surveys on…
Precise measurements of the fundamental properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are key to understanding the physics underlying their formation and evolution. While there has been great progress over the last decade in studying the…
We have investigated a group of stars known to have low chromospheric ages, but high kinematical ages. Isochrone, chemical and lithium ages are estimated for them. The majority of stars in this group show lithium abundances much smaller…
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…