By selecting astrometric and photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, II/306), the Lepine & Shara Proper Motion North Catalog (LSPM-North, I/298), the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS, II/246), and the USNO-B1.0 (I/284) catalog, we use a succession of methods to isolate white dwarf (WD) candidates for follow-up spectroscopy. Our methods include reduced proper motion diagram cuts, color cuts, and atmospheric model adherence. We present spectroscopy of 26 WDs obtained from the CTIO 4m and APO 3.5m telescopes. Additionally, we confirm 28 WDs with spectra available in the SDSS-DR7 database but unpublished elsewhere, presenting a total of 54 WDs. We label one of these as a recovered WD while the remaining 53 are new discoveries. We determine physical parameters and estimate distances based on atmospheric model analyses. Three new WDs are modeled to lie within 25 pc. Two additional WDs are confirmed to be metal-polluted (DAZ). Follow-up time series photometry confirms another object to be a pulsating ZZ Ceti WD.
We report the discovery of 9088 new spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs and subdwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10. We obtain T_eff_, logg and mass for hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf stars (DAs) and helium atmosphere white dwarf stars (DBs), and estimate the calcium/helium abundances for the white dwarf stars with metallic lines (DZs) and carbon/helium for carbon-dominated spectra DQs. We found 1 central star of a planetary nebula, 2 new oxygen spectra on helium atmosphere white dwarfs, 71 DQs, 42 hot DO/PG1159s, 171 white dwarf+main-sequence star binaries, 206 magnetic DAHs, 327 continuum-dominated DCs, 397 metal-polluted white dwarfs, 450 helium-dominated white dwarfs, 647 subdwarfs and 6887 new hydrogen-dominated white dwarf stars.
Draco C1 is a known symbiotic binary star system composed of a carbon red giant and a hot, compact companion-likely a white dwarf-belonging to the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy. From near-infrared spectroscopic observations taken by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), part of Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV, we provide updated stellar parameters for the cool, giant component, and constrain the temperature and mass of the hot, compact companion. Prior measurements of the periodicity of the system, based on only a few epochs of radial velocity data or relatively short baseline photometric observations, were sufficient only to place lower limits on the orbital period (P>300d). For the first time, we report precise orbital parameters for the binary system: with 43 radial velocity measurements from APOGEE spanning an observational baseline of more than 3yr, we definitively derive the period of the system to be 1220.0_-3.5_^+3.7^days. Based on the newly derived orbital period and separation of the system, together with estimates of the radius of the red giant star, we find that the hot companion must be accreting matter from the dense wind of its evolved companion.
Hydrogen-rich, DA-type white dwarfs are particularly suited as primary standard stars for flux calibration. State-of-the-art NLTE models consider opacities of species up to trans-iron elements and provide reliable synthetic stellar-atmosphere spectra to compare with observation. We will establish a database of theoretical spectra of stellar flux standards that are easily accessible via a web interface.
While the near-infrared wavelength regime is becoming more and more important for astrophysics there is a marked lack of spectrophotometric standard star data that allow to flux calibrate such data. Furthermore flux calibrating medium to high resolution echelle spectroscopy data is challenging even in the optical wavelength range, because the available flux standard data are often too coarsely sampled. We will provide standard star reference data that allow users to derive response curves from 300nm to 2500nm for spectroscopic data of medium to high resolution, including those taken with echelle spectrographs. In addition we describe a method to correct for moderate telluric absorption without the need of observing telluric standard stars. As reference data for the flux standard we use theoretical spectra derived from stellar model atmospheres. We verify that they provide an appropriate description of the observed standard star spectra by checking for residuals in line cores and line overlap regions in the ratios of observed (X-shooter) spectra to model spectra. The finally selected model spectra are then corrected for remaining mismatches and photometrically calibrated using independent observations. The correction of telluric absorption is performed with the help of telluric model spectra. We provide new, finely sampled reference spectra without telluric absorption for six southern flux standard stars that allow the users to flux calibrate their data from 300nm to 2500nm, and a method to correct for telluric absorption using atmospheric models.
This paper presents new trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions for 214 stars. The measurements were made at the US Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station between 1989 and 2017, and the average uncertainty in the parallax values is 0.6mas. We find good agreement with Gaia Data Release 2 measurements for the stars in common, although there may be a small systematic offset similar to what has been found by other investigators. The sample is matched to catalogs and the literature to create a photometric data set that spans the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. New mid-infrared photometry is obtained for 19 stars from archived Spitzer mosaics. New optical spectroscopy is presented for seven systems and additional spectra were obtained from the literature. We identify a subsample of 179 white dwarfs (WDs) at distances of 25-200pc. Their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are analyzed using model atmospheres. The models reproduce the entire flux-calibrated SED very well and provide the atmospheric chemical composition, temperature, surface gravity, mass, and cooling age of each WD. Twenty-six WDs are newly classified, and 12 systems are presented as candidate unresolved binaries. We confirm one WD+red dwarf system and identify two WDs as candidate dust disk systems. Twelve old and high-velocity systems are identified as candidate thick disk or halo objects. The WDs in the sample generally have Galactic disk-like ages of <8Gyr and masses close to the canonical 0.6M_{sun}_.
Following the discovery of the T8 subdwarf WISE J200520.38+542433.9 (Wolf 1130C), which has a proper motion in common with a binary (Wolf 1130AB) consisting of an M subdwarf and a white dwarf, we set out to learn more about the old binary in the system. We find that the A and B components of Wolf 1130 are tidally locked, which is revealed by the coherence of more than a year of V-band photometry phase-folded to the derived orbital period of 0.4967 days. Forty new high-resolution, near-infrared spectra obtained with the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) provide radial velocities and a projected rotational velocity (vsini) of 14.7+/-0.7km/s for the M subdwarf. In tandem with a Gaia parallax-derived radius and verified tidal locking, we calculate an inclination of i=29{deg}+/-2{deg}. From the single-lined orbital solution and the inclination we derive an absolute mass for the unseen primary (1.24_-0.15_^+0.19^M_{sun}_). Its non-detection between 0.2 and 2.5{mu}m implies that it is an old (>3.7Gyr) and cool (T_eff_<7000K) ONe white dwarf. This is the first ultramassive white dwarf within 25pc. The evolution of Wolf 1130AB into a cataclysmic variable is inevitable, making it a potential SN Ia progenitor. The formation of a triple system with a primary mass >100 times the tertiary mass and the survival of the system through the common-envelope phase, where ~80% of the system mass was lost, is remarkable. Our analysis of Wolf 1130 allows us to infer its formation and evolutionary history, which has unique implications for understanding low-mass star and brown dwarf formation around intermediate-mass stars.
White dwarf evolution is essentially a gravothermal cooling process, which, for cool white dwarfs, depends on the treatment of the outer boundary conditions. We provide detailed outer boundary conditions that are appropriate to computing the evolution of cool white dwarfs by employing detailed nongray model atmospheres for pure hydrogen composition. We also explore the impact on the white dwarf cooling times of different assumptions for energy transfer in the atmosphere of cool white dwarfs.
It is possible to reliably identify white dwarfs (WDs) without recourse to spectra, instead using photometric and astrometric measurements to distinguish them from main-sequence stars and quasars. WDs' colours can also be used to infer their intrinsic properties (effective temperature, surface gravity, etc.), but the results obtained must be interpreted with care. The difficulties stem from the existence of a solid angle degeneracy, as revealed by a full exploration of the likelihood, although this can be masked if a simple best-fitting approach is used. Conversely, this degeneracy can be broken if a Bayesian approach is adopted, as it is then possible to utilize the prior information on the surface gravities of WDs implied by spectroscopic fitting. The benefits of such an approach are particularly strong when applied to outliers, such as the candidate halo and ultracool WDs identified by Vidrih et al. A reanalysis of these samples confirms their results for the latter sample, but suggests that most of the halo candidates are thick-disc WDs in the tails of the photometric noise distribution.
The SDSS Data Release 1 includes 1833 DA white dwarfs (WDs) and forms the largest homogeneous sample of WDs. This sample provides the best opportunity to study the statistical properties of WDs. We adopt a recently established theoretical model to calculate the mass and distance of each WD using the observational data. Then we adopt a bin-correction method to correct for selection effects and use the 1/V weight-factor method to calculate the luminosity function, the continuous mass function and the formation rate of these WDs.
