The ELM Survey. III. A Successful Targeted Survey for Extremely Low Mass White Dwarfs

Brown, Warren R.; Kilic, Mukremin; Allende-Prieto, C.; Kenyon, Scott J.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 744, Issue 2, article id. 142 (2012).

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1
2012
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
96
Refereed citations
83
Description
Extremely low mass (ELM) white dwarfs (WDs) with masses < 0.25 M &sun; are rare objects that result from compact binary evolution. Here, we present a targeted spectroscopic survey of ELM WD candidates selected by color. The survey is 71% complete and has uncovered 18 new ELM WDs. Of the seven ELM WDs with follow-up observations, six are short-period binaries and four have merger times less than 5 Gyr. The most intriguing object, J1741+6526, likely has either a pulsar companion or a massive WD companion making the system a possible supernova Type Ia or an Ia progenitor. The overall ELM survey has now identified 19 double degenerate binaries with <10 Gyr merger times. The significant absence of short orbital period ELM WDs at cool temperatures suggests that common envelope evolution creates ELM WDs directly in short period systems. At least one-third of the merging systems are halo objects, thus ELM WD binaries continue to form and merge in both the disk and the halo. Based on observations obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.
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