A determination of the space density and birth rate of hydrogen-line (DA) white dwarfs in the Galactic plane, based on the UVEX survey

Verbeek, K.; Groot, Paul J.; Nelemans, Gijs; Scaringi, Simone; Napiwotzki, Ralf; Drew, Janet E.; Steeghs, Danny; Casares, J.; Corral-Santana, J. M.; Gänsicke, Boris T.; González-Solares, Eduardo; Greimel, Robert; Heber, Ulrich; Irwin, Mike J.; Knigge, Christian; Wright, Nicholas J.; Zijlstra, Albert A.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 434, Issue 4, p.2727-2741

Advertised on:
10
2013
Number of authors
17
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
12
Refereed citations
12
Description
We present a determination of the average space density and birth rate of hydrogen-line (DA) white dwarfs within a radius of 1 kpc around the Sun, based on an observational sample of 360 candidate white dwarfs with g < 19.5 and (g - r) < 0.4, selected from the UV-Excess (UVEX) survey of the northern Galactic plane, in combination with a theoretical white dwarf population that has been constructed to simulate the observations, including the effects of reddening and observational selection effects. The main uncertainty in the derivation of the white dwarf space density and current birth rate lies in the absolute photometric calibration and the photometric scatter of the observational data, which influences the classification method on colours, the completeness and the pollution. Corrections for these effects are applied. We derive an average space density of DA white dwarfs with Teff > 10 000 K (MV < 12.2) of (3.8 ± 1.1) × 10-4 pc-3, and an average DA white dwarf birth rate over the last 7×107 yr of (5.4 ± 1.5) × 10-13 pc-3 yr-1. Additionally, we show that many estimates of the white dwarf space density from different studies are consistent with each other, and with our determination here.
Related projects
Representación de la variable cataclísmica SS Cygni (Chris Moran)
Binary Stars
The study of binary stars is essential to stellar astrophysics. A large number of stars form and evolve within binary systems. Therefore, their study is fundamental to understand stellar and galactic evolution. Particularly relevant is that binary systems are still the best source of precise stellar mass and radius measurements. Research lines
Pablo
Rodríguez Gil
Black hole in outburst
Black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs and their local environment
Accreting black-holes and neutron stars in X-ray binaries provide an ideal laboratory for exploring the physics of compact objects, yielding not only confirmation of the existence of stellar mass black holes via dynamical mass measurements, but also the best opportunity for probing high-gravity environments and the physics of accretion; the most
Montserrat
Armas Padilla