White dwarf

About: White dwarf is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15004 publications have been published within this topic receiving 430597 citations. The topic is also known as: degenerate dwarf.

The carbon-to-oxygen ratio in halo dwarfs

Abstract: We have used four C I lines at 9100 A and the O I triplet at 7770 A to determine C and O abundances in a sample of 34 field halo dwarfs, which span the metallicity range −3.0 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ −0.8. The C I line enable us to obtain, for the first time, C abundances for these metal-deficient stars that are based on atomic, rather than molecular, lines. Additional observations of Fe I and Fe II lines at 4500 and 5200 A have been used to help determine atmosphere parameters of the stars

Failed-Detonation Supernovae: Sub-Luminous Low-Velocity Ia Supernovae and Their Kicked Remnant White Dwarfs with Iron-Rich Cores

Abstract: Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) originate from the thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen (C-O) white dwarfs (WDs). The single-degenerate scenario is a well-explored model of SNe Ia where unstable thermonuclear burning initiates in an accreting, Chandrasekhar-mass WD and forms an advancing flame. By several proposed physical processes the rising, burning material triggers a detonation, which subsequently consumes and unbinds the WD. However, if a detonation is not triggered and the deflagration is too weak to unbind the star, a completely different scenario unfolds. We explore the failure of the Gravitationally-Confined Detonation (GCD) mechanism of SNe Ia, and demonstrate through 2D and 3D simulations the properties of failed-detonation SNe. We show that failed-detonation SNe expel a few 0.1 solar masses of burned and partially-burned material and that a fraction of the material falls back onto the WD, polluting the remnant WD with intermediate-mass and iron-group elements, that likely segregate to the core forming an WD whose core is iron rich. The remaining material is asymmetrically ejected at velocities comparable to the escape velocity from the WD, and in response, the WD is kicked to velocities of a few hundred km/s. These kicks may unbind the binary and eject a runaway/hyper-velocity WD. Although the energy and ejected mass of the failed-detonation SN are a fraction of typical thermonuclear SNe, they are likely to appear as sub-luminous low-velocity SNe Ia. Such failed detonations might therefore explain or are related to the observed branch of peculiar SNe Ia, such as the family of low-velocity sub-luminous SNe (SN 2002cx/SN 2008ha-like SNe).

Nuclear fusion in dense matter: Reaction rate and carbon burning

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the nuclear fusion rates among equal nuclei for all five different nuclear burning regimes in dense matter (two thermonuclear regimes, two pycnonuclear ones, and the intermediate regime). The rate is determined by Coulomb barrier penetration in dense environments and by the astrophysical S factor at low energies. We evaluate previous studies of the Coulomb barrier problem and propose a simple phenomenological formula for the reaction rate that covers all cases. The parameters of this formula can be varied to take into account current theoretical uncertainties in the reaction rate. The results are illustrated for the example of the 12 C+ 12 C fusion reaction. This reaction is important for the understanding of nuclear burning in evolved stars, in exploding white dwarfs producing type Ia supernovas, and in accreting neutron stars. The S factor at stellar energies depends on a reliable fit and extrapolation of the experimental data. We calculate the energy dependence of the S factor by using a recently developed parameter-free model for the nuclear interaction, taking into account the effects of the Pauli nonlocality. For illustration, we analyze the efficiency of carbon burning in a wide range of densities and temperatures of stellar matter with the emphasis on carbon ignition at densities ρ > ∼ 10 9 gc m −3 .

A Survey of Proper-Motion Stars. XIV. Spectroscopic Binaries among Metal-poor Field Blue Stragglers

Abstract: We summarize the results from a program of monitoring the radial velocities of 10 metal-poor, high-velocity field stars whose colors are 0.01 to 0.13 mag bluer than main-sequence turnoffs of comparable-metallicity globular clusters. Two of the candidate halo blue stragglers (BD +72 94 and BD +40 1166) show no signs of velocity variability, one (HD 84937) shows only weak signs of variability, one (BD +25 1981) appears to be a very long-period binary, and six (BD -12 2669, HD 97916, HD 106516, BD +51 1817, G66-30, and G202-65) are single-lined spectroscopic binaries, with periods ranging from 167 to 844 days. Velocity coverage for the four candidates without orbital solutions ranges from 15.9 to 19.0 years. The orbital eccentricities are all low, e < 0.30 and e = 0.11. Five of the six binary orbits have very low eccentricities, with e = 0.07. We have reanalyzed the velocity data from Preston & Sneden and have derived orbital solutions similar to theirs for 10 of the spectroscopic binaries among their "blue metal-poor" stars with [Fe/H] ≤ -0.6. We confirm their conclusion that the binary frequency is high; we find 47 ± 10% if we include only the definite binaries with [Fe/H] ≤ -0.6. Our orbital solutions for the seven binaries with periods longer than 20 days all have low eccentricities, with e ≤ 0.26 and e = 0.11. These orbital characteristics are very similar to the Ba II, CH, subgiant CH, and dwarf carbon stars, suggesting that mass transfer has been involved in their formation. Of the five binary stars in our program with published abundances of lithium, all have been found to be deficient (and one in beryllium as well). In contrast, two of the three apparently single stars have published lithium abundances and show no deficiency. The mass functions for the six binaries in our program and seven similar systems studied by Preston & Sneden are consistent with their unseen companions all being white dwarfs with M ≈ 0.55 M⊙ and random orbital inclinations. Taking all of our observations and those of others together, we argue that the results are consistent with all field blue stragglers being binary systems with long periods and low eccentricities, the primary stars being deficient in lithium and the secondary stars being normal-mass white dwarfs. All these properties are suggestive of a blue-straggler formation model that involves mass transfer. For six of the 13 stars in the two programs for which s-process elemental abundances are available, no signs of enhancement are discernible, suggesting that the donor star was a first-ascent red giant. For the star with the longest orbital period (1307 days), CS 22956-028, s-process abundance enhancements have been reported. This star may be a precursor to the subgiant CH class, as suggested by Luck & Bond.