The Lowest Mass White Dwarf

Kilic, Mukremin; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Brown, Warren R.; Koester, D.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 660, Issue 2, pp. 1451-1461.

Advertised on:
5
2007
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
80
Refereed citations
70
Description
Extremely low mass white dwarfs are very rare objects likely formed in compact binary systems. We present MMT optical spectroscopy of 42 low-mass white dwarf candidates serendipitously discovered in a survey for hypervelocity B-type stars. One of these objects, SDSS J0917+46, has Teff=11,288+/-72 K and logg=5.48+/-0.03 with an estimated mass of 0.17 Msolar, it is the lowest gravity/mass white dwarf currently known. However, 40 of the low-mass candidates are normal DA white dwarfs with apparently inaccurate SDSS g magnitudes. We revisit the identification of low-mass white dwarf candidates previously found in the SDSS and conclude that four objects have M<0.2 Msolar. None of these white dwarfs show excess emission from a binary companion, and radial velocity searches will be necessary to constrain the nature of the unseen companions.
Type