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.

Remnants of binary white dwarf mergers

Abstract: We carry out a comprehensive smooth particle hydrodynamics simulation survey of double-degenerate white dwarf binary mergers of varying mass combinations in order to establish correspondence between initial conditions and remnant configurations. We find that all but one of our simulation remnants share general properties such as a cold, degenerate core surrounded by a hot disk, while our least massive pair of stars forms only a hot disk. We characterize our remnant configurations by the core mass, the rotational velocity of the core, and the half-mass radius of the disk. We also find that some of our simulations with very massive constituent stars exhibit helium detonations on the surface of the primary star before complete disruption of the secondary. However, these helium detonations are insufficiently energetic to ignite carbon, and so do not lead to prompt carbon detonations.

Precise mass and radius values for the white dwarf and low mass M dwarf in the pre‐cataclysmic binary NN Serpentis

Abstract: Using the high resolution Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) mounted on the Very Large Telescope in combination with photometry from the high-speed CCD camera ULTRACAM, we derive precise system parameters for the pre-cataclysmic binary NN Ser. A model fit to the ULTRACAM light curves gives the orbital inclination as i = 89 degrees.6 +/- 0 degrees.2 and the scaled radii, R-WD/a and R-sec/a. Analysis of the He (II) 4686 angstrom absorption line gives a radial velocity amplitude for the white dwarf of K-WD = 62.3 +/- 1.9 km s(-1). We find that the irradiation-induced emission lines from the surface of the secondary star give a range of observed radial velocity amplitudes due to differences in optical depths in the lines. We correct these values to the centre of mass of the secondary star by computing line profiles from the irradiated face of the secondary star. We determine a radial velocity of K-sec = 301 +/- 3 km s(-1), with an error dominated by the systematic effects of the model. This leads to a binary separation of a = 0.934 +/- 0.009 R-circle dot, radii of R-WD = 0.0211 +/- 0.0002 R-circle dot and R-sec = 0.149 +/- 0.002 R-circle dot and masses of M-WD = 0.535 +/- 0.012 M-circle dot and M-sec = 0.111 +/- 0.004 M-circle dot. The masses and radii of both components of NN Ser were measured independently of any mass-radius relation. For the white dwarf, the measured mass, radius and temperature show excellent agreement with a 'thick' hydrogen layer of fractional mass M-H/M-WD = 10(-4). The measured radius of the secondary star is 10 per cent larger than predicted by models, however, correcting for irradiation accounts for most of this inconsistency, hence the secondary star in NN Ser is one of the first precisely measured very low mass objects (M less than or similar to 0.3 M-circle dot) to show good agreement with models. ULTRACAM r', i' and z' photometry taken during the primary eclipse determines the colours of the secondary star as (r' - i')(sec) = 1.4 +/- 0.1 and (i' - z')(sec) = 0.8 +/- 0.1 which corresponds to a spectral type of M4 +/- 0.5. This is consistent with the derived mass, demonstrating that there is no detectable heating of the unirradiated face, despite intercepting radiative energy from the white dwarf which exceeds its own luminosity by over a factor of 20.

Excess Infrared Radiation from a Massive DAZ White Dwarf: GD362 - a Debris Disk? 1

Abstract: We report the discovery of excess K-band radiation from a massive DAZ white dwarf star, GD362. Combining infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations, we show that the excess radiation cannot be explained by a stellar or substellar companion, and is likely to be caused by a debris disk. This would be only the second such system known, discovered 18 years after G29-38, the only single white dwarf currently known to be orbited by circumstellar dust. Both of these systems favor a model with accretion from a surrounding debris disk to explain the metal abundances observed in DAZ white dwarfs. Nevertheless, observations of more DAZs in the mid-infrared are required to test if this model can explain all DAZs.

Metal accretion onto white dwarfs caused by Poynting-Robertson drag on their debris disks

Abstract: Recent discoveries of compact (sizes R ☉) debris disks around more than a dozen metal-rich white dwarfs (WDs) suggest that pollution of these stars with metals may be caused by accretion of high-Z material from the disk. But the mechanism responsible for efficient transfer of mass from a particulate disk to the WD atmosphere has not yet been identified. Here we demonstrate that radiation of the WD can effectively drive accretion of matter through the disk toward the sublimation radius (located at several tens of WD radii), where particles evaporate, feeding a disk of metal gas accreting onto the WD. We show that, contrary to some previous claims, Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag on the debris disk is effective at providing metal accretion rate g s–1 and higher, scaling quadratically with WD effective temperature. We compare our results with observations and show that, as expected, no WD hosting a particulate debris disk shows evidence of metal accretion rate below that produced by the PR drag. Existence of WDs accreting metals at rates significantly higher than suggests that another mechanism in addition to the PR drag drives accretion of high-Z elements in these systems.