The unbiased frequency of planetary signatures around single and binary white dwarfs using Spitzer{\it Spitzer} and Hubble{\it Hubble}

This paper presents combined ${\it Spitzer}$ IRAC and ${\it Hubble}$ COS results for a double-blind survey of 195 single and 22 wide binary white dwarfs for infrared excesses and atmospheric metals. The selection criteria include cooling ages in the range 9 to 300 Myr, and hydrogen-rich atmospheres so that the presence of atmospheric metals can be confidently linked to ongoing accretion from a circumstellar disc. The entire sample has infrared photometry, whereas 168 targets have corresponding ultraviolet spectra. Three stars with infrared excesses due to debris discs are recovered, yielding a nominal frequency of $1.5_{-0.5}^{+1.5}$ per cent, while in stark contrast, the fraction of stars with atmospheric metals is $45\pm4$ per cent. Thus, only one out of 30 polluted white dwarfs exhibits an infrared excess at 3-4 $\mu$m in IRAC photometry, which reinforces the fact that atmospheric metal pollution is the most sensitive tracer of white dwarf planetary systems. The corresponding fraction of infrared excesses around white dwarfs with wide binary companions is consistent with zero, using both the infrared survey data and an independent assessment of potential binarity for well-established dusty and polluted stars. In contrast, the frequency of atmospheric pollution among the targets in wide binaries is indistinct from apparently single stars, and moreover the multiplicity of polluted white dwarfs in a complete and volume-limited sample is the same as for field stars. Therefore, it appears that the delivery of planetesimal material onto white dwarfs is ultimately not driven by stellar companions, but by the dynamics of planetary bodies.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

A catalogue of cataclysmic variables from 20 years of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with new classifications, periods, trends and oddities

We present a catalogue of 507 cataclysmic variables (CVs) observed in SDSS I to IV including 70 new classifications collated from multiple archival data sets. This represents the largest sample of CVs with high-quality and homogeneous optical spectroscopy. We have used this sample to derive unbiased space densities and period distributions for the major sub-types of CVs. We also report on some peculiar CVs, period bouncers and also CVs exhibiting large changes in accretion rates. We report 70 new CVs, 59 new periods, 178 unpublished spectra and 262 new or updated classifications. From the SDSS spectroscopy, we also identified 18 systems incorrectly identified as CVs in the literature. We discuss the observed properties of 13 peculiar CVS, and we identify a small set of eight CVs that defy the standard classification scheme. We use this sample to investigate the distribution of different CV sub-types, and we estimate their individual space densities, as well as that of the entire CV population. The SDSS I to IV sample includes 14 period bounce CVs or candidates. We discuss the variability of CVs across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, highlighting selection biases of variability-based CV detection. Finally, we searched for, and found eight tertiary companions to the SDSS CVs. We anticipate that this catalogue and the extensive material included in the Supplementary Data will be useful for a range of observational population studies of CVs.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. Supplementary information available at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/keithinight/sdss_paper_supplementary_informatio

Zeeman tomography of magnetic white dwarfs. IV, The complex field structure of the polars EF Eridani, BL Hydri and CP Tucanae

Context. The magnetic fields of the accreting white dwarfs in magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCVs) determine the accretion geometries, the emission properties, and the secular evolution of these objects. Aims. We determine the structure of the surface magnetic fields of the white dwarf primaries in magnetic CVs using Zeeman tomography. Methods. Our study is based on orbital-phase resolved optical flux and circular polarization spectra of the polars EF Eri, BL Hyi, and CP Tuc obtained with FORS1 at the ESO VLT. An evolutionary algorithm is used to synthesize best fits to these spectra from an extensive database of pre-computed Zeeman spectra. The general approach has been described in previous papers of this series. Results. The results achieved with simple geometries as centered or offset dipoles are not satisfactory. Significantly improved fits are obtained for multipole expansions that are truncated at degree lmax = 3 or 5 and include all tesseral and sectoral components with 0 ≤ m ≤ l. The most frequent field strengths of 13, 18, and 10MG for EF Eri, BL Hyi, and CP Tuc, and the ranges of field strength covered are similar for the dipole and multipole models, but only the latter provide access to accreting matter at the right locations on the white dwarf. The results suggest that the field geometries of the white dwarfs in short-period mCVs are quite complex, with strong contributions from multipoles higher than the dipole in spite of a typical age of the white dwarfs in CVs in excess of 1 Gyr. Conclusions. It is feasible to derive the surface field structure of an accreting white dwarf from phase-resolved low-state circular spectropolarimetry of sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio. The fact that independent information is available on the strength and direction of the field in the accretion spot from high-state observations helps in unraveling the global field structure

Circumstellar Disks at White Dwarfs: Observations

The current picture painted by the observations of circumstellar dust at white dwarfs, and the consequent atmospheric pollution, is of a surviving planetary system. This chapter recounts in detail both the discovery and empirical characterization of dust disks at single white dwarfs, including all observational data available up to early 2011. Observations of the disks themselves and the accreted heavy elements within the stellar photospheres are consistent with tidally disrupted asteroid analogs. The observed chemistry supports objects that condensed within the inner regions of main-sequence stars and thus far appear similar in constitution to the terrestrial planets and their building blocks.Comment: Chapter from the book "White Dwarf Atmospheres and Circumstellar Environments", ed. D. W. Hoard (Wiley-VCH), 201

RATS-Kepler - a deep high-cadence survey of the Kepler field

We outline the purpose, strategy and first results of a deep, high-cadence, photometric survey of the Kepler field using the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma and the MDM 1.3 m Telescope on Kitt Peak. Our goal was to identify sources located in the Kepler field of view which are variable on a time-scale of a few minutes to 1 h. The astrophysically most-interesting sources would then have been candidates for observation using Kepler using 1 min sampling. Our survey covered &tilde;42 per cent of the Kepler field of view, and we have obtained light curves for 7.1 &times; 105 objects in the range 13 &lt; g &lt; 20. We have discovered more than 100 variable sources which have passed our two stage identification process. As a service to the wider community, we make our data products and cleaned CCD images available to download. We obtained Kepler data of 18 sources which we found to be variable using our survey, and we give an overview of the currently available data here. These sources include a pulsating DA white dwarf, 11 delta Sct stars which have dominant pulsation periods in the range 24 min to 2.35 h, three contact binaries, and a cataclysmic variable (V363 Lyr). One of the delta Sct stars is in a contact binary.</p

GALEX and Optical Light Curves of WX LMi, SDSSJ103100.5+202832.2 and SDSSJ121209.31+013627.7

{\it GALEX} near ultraviolet (NUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) light curves of three extremely low accretion rate polars show distinct modulations in their UV light curves. While these three systems have a range of magnetic fields from 13 to 70 MG, and of late type secondaries (including a likely brown dwarf in SDSSJ121209.31+013627.7), the accretion rates are similar, and the UV observations imply some mechanism is operating to create enhanced emission zones on the white dwarf. The UV variations match in phase to the two magnetic poles viewed in the optical in WX LMi and to the single poles evident in the optical in SDSSJ1212109.31+013627.7 and SDSSJ103100.55+202832.2. Simple spot models of the UV light curves show that if hot spots are responsible for the UV variations, the temperatures are on the order of 10,000-14,000K. For the single pole systems, the size of the FUV spot must be smaller than the NUV and in all cases, the geometry is likely more complicated than a simple circular spot.Comment: 29 pages, 4 tables, 10 figures, Astrophysical Journal, accepte

Galex and optical observations of GW librae during the long decline from superoutburst

The prototype of accreting, pulsating white dwarfs (GW Lib) underwent a large amplitude dwarf nova outburst in 2007. We used ultraviolet data from Galaxy Evolution Explorer and ground-based optical photometry and spectroscopy to follow GW Lib for three years following this outburst. Several variations are apparent during this interval. The optical shows a superhump modulation in the months following outburst, while a 19 minute quasi-periodic modulation lasting for several months is apparent in the year after outburst. A long timescale (about 4 hr) modulation first appears in the UV a year after outburst and increases in amplitude in the following years. This variation also appears in the optical two years after outburst but is not in phase with the UV. The pre-outburst pulsations are not yet visible after three years, likely indicating the white dwarf has not returned to its quiescent state

Properties of the Galactic population of cataclysmic variables in hard X-rays

We measure the spatial distribution and hard X-ray luminosity function of cataclysmic variables (CVs) using the INTEGRAL all-sky survey in the 17-60 keV energy band. The vast majority of the INTEGRAL detected CVs are intermediate polars with luminosities in the range 10^{32}-10^{34} erg/sec. The scale height of the Galactic disk population of CVs is found to be 130{+90}{-50} pc. The CV luminosity function measured with INTEGRAL in hard X-rays is compatible with that previously determined at lower energies (3--20 keV) using a largely independent sample of sources detected by RXTE (located at |b|>10deg as opposed to the INTEGRAL sample, strongly concentrated to the Galactic plane). The cumulative 17-60 keV luminosity density of CVs per unit stellar mass is found to be (1.3+/-0.3)x10^{27} erg/sec/Msun and is thus comparable to that of low-mass X-ray binaries in this energy band. Therefore, faint but numerous CVs are expected to provide an important contribution to the cumulative hard X-ray emission of galaxies.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to A&

The detection of dust around NN Ser

Eclipse timing variations observed from the post common-envelope binary (PCEB) NN Ser offer strong evidence in favour of circumbinary planets existing around PCEBs. If real, these planets may be accompanied by a disc of dust. We here present the ALMA detection of flux at 1.3 mm from NN Ser, which is likely due to thermal emission from a dust disc of mass ∼ 0.8±0.2 M⊕. We performed simulations of the history of NN Ser to determine possible origins of this dust, and conclude that the most likely origin is, in fact, common-envelope material which was not expelled from the system and instead formed a circumbinary disc. These discs have been predicted by theory but previously remained undetected. While the presence of this dust does not prove the existence of planets around NN Ser, it adds credibility to the possibility of planets forming from common-envelope material in a ‘second-generation’ scenario