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Title:
Finding The Friends: Radio And Optical Searches For Companions To Low-Mass White Dwarfs
Authors:
Agueros, Marcel A.; Silvestri, N. M.; Camilo, F.; Anderson, S. F.; Eisenstein, D.; Kleinman, S.; Liebert, J. W.
Affiliation:
AA(Columbia Univ), AB(U. of Washington), AC(Columbia Univ), AD(U. of Washington), AE(Steward Obs), AF(Gemini Obs.), AG(Steward Obs)
Publication:
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #15.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.764
Publication Date:
12/2007
Origin:
AAS
Bibliographic Code:
2007AAS...211.1502A

Abstract

The number of known white dwarfs (WDs) has increased dramatically since the advent of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The majority of these objects are hydrogen (DA) WDs for which the mass distribution peaks at the expected value of 0.6 solar masses for field DAs. However, among the new SDSS WDs there are also a handful of candidate very low-mass WDs (LMWDs), typically with masses below 0.3 solar masses. Such objects are noteworthy not only because of their rarity, but because the Galaxy is not old enough to have produced LMWDs through the evolution of single stars. The SDSS LMWDs, however, do not show the photometric excess or spectroscopic signature associated with a companion in their discovery data. Here we report on radio (Green Bank Telescope) and optical (Gemini North and South Telescopes) campaigns to identify and characterize the currently unseen companions to these rare WDs. M. Agueros is supported by an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship under award AST-0602099. Further support was provided via NRAO/GBT GSSP06-0008.
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