A catalogue of isolated massive white dwarfs

Abstract

We present in this paper a catalogue of 112 massive isolated white dwarfs, with masses $M > 0.8~ M_{\odot}$. Mass determinations and other parameters of white dwarfs were compiled from the available literature. For each star we present averaged values of mass, effective temperature, logarithm of surface gravity $\log g$, radius, distance, and the surface magnetic field for magnetic white dwarfs. The mass distribution of our sample is a slowly decreasing continuum function for masses larger than $0.9 ~M_{\odot}$, with an overlapping secondary maximum at $1.04 ~M_{\odot}$. We conclude that the mass distribution of known massive magnetic white dwarfs is flat, whereas nonmagnetic WDs exhibit a steeper mass distribution towards the highest masses. The secondary maximum at $1.04 ~M_{\odot}$ is caused exclusively by nonmagnetic white dwarfs. We note that the 4 most massive stars with masses $M \ge 1.3 ~M_{\odot}$ are magnetic white dwarfs. Our results show also, that the occurrence of magnetism in massive white dwarfs does not depend on the cooling age (above ${T_{\rm eff}}= 5000$ K).