Bibcode
Catalán, S.; Ribas, I.; Isern, J.; García-Berro, E.; Allende Prieto, C.
Bibliographical reference
Binary Stars as Critical Tools & Tests in Contemporary Astrophysics, Proceedings of IAU Symposium #240, held 22-25 August, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic. Edited by W.I. Hartkopf, E.F. Guinan and P. Harmanec. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007., pp.380-382
Advertised on:
8
2007
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The initial-to-final mass relationship is the connection between the
mass of a white dwarf and the mass of its progenitor in the main
sequence. This function is of paramount importance to aspects such as
determining ages and distances of globular clusters, constraining the
chemical evolution in galaxies, and also understanding the properties of
the galactic population of white dwarfs. Despite its relevance, this
relation is still poorly constrained. A promising approach to diminish
the uncertainties is to study white dwarfs for which external
constraints are available. This is the case of white dwarfs in common
proper motion pairs. Important information of the white dwarf member can
be inferred from the study of the companion, since they were born at
the same time and with the same chemical composition. We report new
results obtained from spectroscopic observations of both members of
several common proper motion pairs composed of a main sequence star (F,
G or K type) and a white dwarf. From the fitting of the absorption
lines to theoretical models we obtain the effective temperature and the
surface gravity of the white dwarf member and, consequently, its mass
and cooling time. The determination of the metallicity of the main
sequence companion helps us to infer the metallicity of the progenitor
of the white dwarf. This procedure allows us to estimate the main
sequence lifetime of the white dwarf, and hence, to determine the total
age of the system. At that point, we will be able to derive the mass of
the main sequence progenitor of the white dwarf and to better establish
the initial-to-final mass relationship.