2,019 research outputs found
A Detailed Model Atmosphere Analysis of Cool White Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We present optical spectroscopy and near-infrared photometry of 126 cool
white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our sample includes high
proper motion targets selected using the SDSS and USNO-B astrometry and a dozen
previously known ultracool white dwarf candidates. Our optical spectroscopic
observations demonstrate that a clean selection of large samples of cool white
dwarfs in the SDSS (and the SkyMapper, Pan-STARRS, and the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope datasets) is possible using a reduced proper motion diagram
and a tangential velocity cut-off (depending on the proper motion accuracy) of
30 km/s. Our near-infrared observations reveal eight new stars with significant
absorption. We use the optical and near-infrared photometry to perform a
detailed model atmosphere analysis. More than 80% of the stars in our sample
are consistent with either pure hydrogen or pure helium atmospheres. However,
the eight stars with significant infrared absorption and the majority of the
previously known ultracool white dwarf candidates are best explained with mixed
hydrogen and helium atmosphere models. The age distribution of our sample is
consistent with a Galactic disk age of 8 Gyr. A few ultracool white dwarfs may
be as old as 12-13 Gyr, but our models have problems matching the spectral
energy distributions of these objects. There are only two halo white dwarf
candidates in our sample. However, trigonometric parallax observations are
required for accurate mass and age determinations and to confirm their
membership in the halo.Comment: ApJ Supplements, in pres
Feshbach Resonance and Growth of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Gross-Pitaevskii equation with gain is used to model Bose Einstein
condensation (BEC) fed by the surrounding thermal cloud. It is shown that the
number of atoms continuously injected into BEC from the reservoir can be
controlled by applying the external magnetic field via Feshbach resonance.Comment: 4 page
The Discovery of the Most Metal-Rich White Dwarf: Composition of a Tidally Disrupted Extrasolar Dwarf Planet
Cool white dwarf stars are usually found to have an outer atmosphere that is
practically pure in hydrogen or helium. However, a small fraction have traces
of heavy elements that must originate from the accretion of extrinsic material,
most probably circumstellar matter. Upon examining thousands of Sloan Digital
Sky Survey spectra, we discovered that the helium-atmosphere white dwarf SDSS
J073842.56+183509.6 shows the most severe metal pollution ever seen in the
outermost layers of such stars. We present here a quantitative analysis of this
exciting star by combining high S/N follow-up spectroscopic and photometric
observations with model atmospheres and evolutionary models. We determine the
global structural properties of our target star, as well as the abundances of
the most significant pollutants in its atmosphere, i.e., H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca,
and Fe. The relative abundances of these elements imply that the source of the
accreted material has a composition similar to that of Bulk Earth. We also
report the signature of a circumstellar disk revealed through a large infrared
excess in JHK photometry. Combined with our inferred estimate of the mass of
the accreted material, this strongly suggests that we are witnessing the
remains of a tidally disrupted extrasolar body that was as large as Ceres.Comment: 7 pages in emulateapj, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Discovery of a Debris Disk Around the DAV White Dwarf PG 1541+651
To search for circumstellar disks around evolved stars, we targeted roughly
100 DA white dwarfs from the Palomar Green survey with the Peters Automated
Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL). Here we report the discovery of a debris
disk around one of these targets, the pulsating white dwarf PG 1541+651 (KX
Draconis, hereafter PG1541). We detect a significant flux excess around PG1541
in the K-band. Follow-up near-infrared spectroscopic observations obtained at
the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and photometric observations with
the warm Spitzer Space Telescope confirm the presence of a warm debris disk
within 0.13-0.36 Rsun (11-32x the stellar radius) at an inclination angle of
60deg. At Teff = 11880 K, PG1541 is almost a twin of the DAV white dwarf
G29-38, which also hosts a debris disk. All previously known dusty white dwarfs
are of the DAZ/DBZ spectral type due to accretion of metals from the disk.
High-resolution optical spectroscopy is needed to search for metal absorption
lines in PG1541 and to constrain the accretion rate from the disk. PG1541 is
only 55 pc away from the Sun and the discovery of its disk in our survey
demonstrates that our knowledge of the nearby dusty white dwarf population is
far from complete.Comment: MNRAS Letters, in pres
Precise Atmospheric Parameters for the Shortest Period Binary White Dwarfs: Gravitational Waves, Metals, and Pulsations
We present a detailed spectroscopic analysis of 61 low mass white dwarfs and
provide precise atmospheric parameters, masses, and updated binary system
parameters based on our new model atmosphere grids and the most recent
evolutionary model calculations. For the first time, we measure systematic
abundances of He, Ca and Mg for metal-rich extremely low mass white dwarfs and
examine the distribution of these abundances as a function of effective
temperature and mass. Based on our preliminary results, we discuss the
possibility that shell flashes may be responsible for the presence of the
observed He and metals. We compare stellar radii derived from our spectroscopic
analysis to model-independent measurements and find good agreement except for
those white dwarfs with Teff < 10,000 K. We also calculate the expected
gravitational wave strain for each system and discuss their significance to the
eLISA space-borne gravitational wave observatory. Finally, we provide an update
on the instability strip of extremely low mass white dwarf pulsators.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
First Results from Pan-STARRS1: Faint, High Proper Motion White Dwarfs in the Medium-Deep Fields
The Pan-STARRS1 survey has obtained multi-epoch imaging in five bands
(Pan-STARRS1 gps, rps, ips, zps, and yps) on twelve "Medium Deep Fields", each
of which spans a 3.3 degree circle. For the period between Apr 2009 and Apr
2011 these fields were observed 50-200 times. Using a reduced proper motion
diagram, we have extracted a list of 47 white dwarf (WD) candidates whose
Pan-STARRS1 astrometry indicates a non-zero proper motion at the 6-sigma level,
with a typical 1-sigma proper motion uncertainty of 10 mas/yr. We also used
astrometry from SDSS (when available) and USNO-B to assess our proper motion
fits. None of the WD candidates exhibits evidence of statistically significant
parallaxes, with a typical 1-sigma uncertainty of 8 mas. Twelve of these
candidates are known WDs, including the high proper motion (1.7"/yr) WD LHS
291. We confirm three more objects as WDs through optical spectroscopy. Based
on the Pan-STARRS1 colors, ten of the stars are likely to be cool WDs with 4170
K Teff 5000 K and cooling ages <9 Gyr. We classify these objects as likely
thick disk WDs based on their kinematics. Our current sample represents only a
small fraction of the Pan-STARRS1 data. With continued coverage from the Medium
Deep Field Survey and the 3pi survey, Pan-STARRS1 should find many more high
proper motion WDs that are part of the old thick disk and halo.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
A Dusty Disk Around WD1150-153: Explaining the Metals in White Dwarfs by Accretion from the Interstellar Medium versus Debris Disks
We report the discovery of excess K-band radiation from a metal-rich DAV
white dwarf star, WD1150-153. Our near infrared spectroscopic observations show
that the excess radiation cannot be explained by a (sub)stellar companion, and
is likely to be caused by a debris disk similar to the other DAZ white dwarfs
with circumstellar debris disks. We find that the fraction of DAZ white dwarfs
with detectable debris disks is at least 14%. We also revisit the problem of
explaining the metals in white dwarf photospheres by accretion from the
interstellar medium (ISM). We use the observed interstellar column densities
toward stars in close angular proximity and similar distance as DAZ white
dwarfs to constrain the contribution of accretion from the ISM. We find no
correlation between the accretion density required to supply metals observed in
DAZs with the densities observed in their interstellar environment, indicating
that ISM accretion alone cannot explain the presence of metals in nearby DAZ
white dwarfs. Although ISM accretion will certainly contribute, our analysis
indicates that it is not the dominant source of metals for most DAZ white
dwarfs. Instead, the growing number of circumstellar debris disks around DAZs
suggests that circumstellar material may play a more dominant role in polluting
the white dwarf atmospheres.Comment: ApJ, in pres
3D Model Atmospheres for Extremely Low-Mass White Dwarfs
We present an extended grid of mean three-dimensional (3D) spectra for
low-mass, pure-hydrogen atmosphere DA white dwarfs (WDs). We use CO5BOLD
radiation-hydrodynamics 3D simulations covering Teff = 6000-11,500 K and logg =
5-6.5 (cgs units) to derive analytical functions to convert spectroscopically
determined 1D temperatures and surface gravities to 3D atmospheric parameters.
Along with the previously published 3D models, the 1D to 3D corrections are now
available for essentially all known convective DA WDs (i.e., logg = 5-9). For
low-mass WDs, the correction in temperature is relatively small (a few per cent
at the most), but the surface gravities measured from the 3D models are lower
by as much as 0.35 dex. We revisit the spectroscopic analysis of the extremely
low-mass (ELM) WDs, and demonstrate that the 3D models largely resolve the
discrepancies seen in the radius and mass measurements for relatively cool ELM
WDs in eclipsing double WD and WD + milli-second pulsar binary systems. We also
use the 3D corrections to revise the boundaries of the ZZ Ceti instability
strip, including the recently found ELM pulsators.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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