The ELM Survey. VII. Orbital Properties of Low-Mass White Dwarf Binaries

Bibcode
2016ApJ...818..155B
DOI
10.3847/0004-637X/818/2/155
Brown, W. R.; Gianninas, A.; Kilic, M.; Kenyon, S. J.; Allende Prieto, C.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 818, Issue 2, article id. 155, 13 pp. (2016).

Advertised on:
2
2016
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
106
Refereed citations
95
Description
We present the discovery of 15 extremely low-mass (5\lt {log}g\lt 7) white dwarf (WD) candidates, 9 of which are in ultra-compact double-degenerate binaries. Our targeted extremely low-mass Survey sample now includes 76 binaries. The sample has a lognormal distribution of orbital periods with a median period of 5.4 hr. The velocity amplitudes imply that the binary companions have a normal distribution of mass with 0.76 M⊙ mean and 0.25 M⊙ dispersion. Thus extremely low-mass WDs are found in binaries with a typical mass ratio of 1:4. Statistically speaking, 95% of the WD binaries have a total mass below the Chandrasekhar mass, and thus are not type Ia supernova progenitors. Yet half of the observed binaries will merge in less than 6 Gyr due to gravitational wave radiation; probable outcomes include single massive WDs and stable mass transfer AM CVn binaries. Based on observations obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.
Type
Refereed

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