The Lowest Mass White Dwarf

Kilic, Mukremin; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Brown, Warren R.; Koester, D.
Referencia bibliográfica

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

Fecha de publicación:
5
2007
Número de autores
4
Número de autores del IAC
0
Número de citas
80
Número de citas referidas
70
Descripción
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.