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Low Mass White Dwarfs in Binaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

T. R. Marsh ,
V. S. Dhillon  and
S. R. Duck
T. R. Marsh
Affiliation:
University of Southampton, Dept. of Physics, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
V. S. Dhillon
Affiliation:
Royal Greenwich Observatory, Apartado de Correos 321, Santa Cruz de La Palma, 38780 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
S. R. Duck
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Dept. of Physics, Nuclear and Astrophysics Laboratory, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK

Abstract

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The lowest mass white dwarfs that can have been produced by single star evolution in the lifetime of the Galaxy have masses of about 0.53 M⊙. There are however several white dwarfs known with significantly lower masses. Evolution in a binary provides a straightforward explanation as the star can lose its envelope before ever burning helium. The products are expected to be short-period binary stars. To test this we have looked at 15 such stars and have found that 8 of them are close binaries. Thus binary evolution does have a major role in the formation of low-mass white dwarfs. We discuss whether the non-detections could also be binary stars.

Type
Post Common Envelope Binaries & Evolution
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 158: Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects , 1996 , pp. 465 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996

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