THE WIRED SURVEY. IV. NEW DUST DISKS FROM THE McCOOK and SION WHITE DWARF CATALOG

Journal Article · Mon Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/770/1/21· OSTI ID:22127178

Hoard, D. W.; Wachter, Stefanie ^[1]; Debes, John H. ^[2]; Leisawitz, David T. ^[3]; Cohen, Martin ^[4]

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1. Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
2. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
3. Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
4. Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, Marina, CA 93933 (United States)

We have compiled photometric data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer All Sky Survey and other archival sources for the more than 2200 objects in the original McCook and Sion Catalog of Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs. We applied color-selection criteria to identify 28 targets whose infrared spectral energy distributions depart from the expectation for the white dwarf (WD) photosphere alone. Seven of these are previously known WDs with circumstellar dust disks, five are known central stars of planetary nebulae, and six were excluded for being known binaries or having possible contamination of their infrared photometry. We fit WD models to the spectral energy distributions of the remaining ten targets, and find seven new candidates with infrared excess suggesting the presence of a circumstellar dust disk. We compare the model dust disk properties for these new candidates with a comprehensive compilation of previously published parameters for known WDs with dust disks. It is possible that the current census of WDs with dust disks that produce an excess detectable at K-band and shorter wavelengths is close to complete for the entire sample of known WDs to the detection limits of existing near-IR all-sky surveys. The WD dust disk candidates now being found using longer wavelength infrared data are drawn from a previously underrepresented region of parameter space, in which the dust disks are overall cooler, narrower in radial extent, and/or contain fewer emitting grains.

• OSTI ID: 22127178
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 770, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COLOR MODEL
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DUSTS
ENERGY SPECTRA
HEAT EXCHANGERS
INFRARED SURVEYS
PHOTOMETRY
PHOTOSPHERE
PLANETARY NEBULAE
SENSITIVITY
SKY
WAVELENGTHS
WHITE DWARF STARS
WIRES