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Title: First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf

Abstract

Ultra-cool white dwarfs are among the oldest stellar remnants in the Universe. Their efficient gravitational settling and low effective temperatures are responsible for the smooth spectra they exhibit. For that reason, it is not possible to derive their radial velocities or to find the chemistry of the progenitors. The best that can be done is to infer such properties from associated sources, which are coeval. The simplest form of such a system is a common proper motion pair where one star is an evolved degenerate and the other a main-sequence star. Herein, we present the discovery of the first of such a system, the M dwarf LHS 6328 and the ultra-cool white dwarf PSO J1801+625, from the Pan-STARRS 1 3π survey and the Gaia Data Release 2. Follow-up spectra were collected covering a usable wavelength range of 3750–24 500 Å. Their spectra show that the white dwarf has an effective temperature of 3550 K and surface gravity of log $$g$$ = 7.45 ± 0.13 or log $$g$$ = 7.49 ± 0.13 for a CO or He core, respectively, when compared against synthetic spectra of ultra-cool white dwarf atmosphere models. The system has slightly subsolar metallicity with -0.25 < [Fe/H] < 0.0, and a spatial velocity of (U, V, W) = (-114.26 ± 0.24, 222.94 ± 0.60, 10.25 ± 0.34) km s-1, the first radial velocity and metallicity measurements of an ultra-cool white dwarf. This makes it the first and only benchmark of its kind to date.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Liverpool John Moores Univ. (United Kingdom)
  2. Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom). The Royal Observatory
  3. Inst. de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Univ. de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife (Spain)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Suffolk Univ., Madrid Campus (Spain)
  6. Nanjing Univ., Jiangsu (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); OPTICON; Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of Spain (MINECO); Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC); GRANTE-CAN; Spanish Government; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
OSTI Identifier:
1614843
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-31660
Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711; TRN: US2106320
Grant/Contract Number:  
89233218CNA000001; AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P (2016-2019); NNX08AR22G; AST-1238877
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 493; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; binaries: visual; stars: low-mass; white dwarfs; solar neighbourhood

Citation Formats

Lam, M. C., Hambly, N. C., Lodieu, N., Blouin, Simon, Harvey, E. J., Smith, R. J., Gálvez-Ortiz, M. C., and Zhang, Z. H. First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa584.
Lam, M. C., Hambly, N. C., Lodieu, N., Blouin, Simon, Harvey, E. J., Smith, R. J., Gálvez-Ortiz, M. C., & Zhang, Z. H. First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf. United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa584
Lam, M. C., Hambly, N. C., Lodieu, N., Blouin, Simon, Harvey, E. J., Smith, R. J., Gálvez-Ortiz, M. C., and Zhang, Z. H. Thu . "First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf". United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa584. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1614843.
@article{osti_1614843,
title = {First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf},
author = {Lam, M. C. and Hambly, N. C. and Lodieu, N. and Blouin, Simon and Harvey, E. J. and Smith, R. J. and Gálvez-Ortiz, M. C. and Zhang, Z. H.},
abstractNote = {Ultra-cool white dwarfs are among the oldest stellar remnants in the Universe. Their efficient gravitational settling and low effective temperatures are responsible for the smooth spectra they exhibit. For that reason, it is not possible to derive their radial velocities or to find the chemistry of the progenitors. The best that can be done is to infer such properties from associated sources, which are coeval. The simplest form of such a system is a common proper motion pair where one star is an evolved degenerate and the other a main-sequence star. Herein, we present the discovery of the first of such a system, the M dwarf LHS 6328 and the ultra-cool white dwarf PSO J1801+625, from the Pan-STARRS 1 3π survey and the Gaia Data Release 2. Follow-up spectra were collected covering a usable wavelength range of 3750–24 500 Å. Their spectra show that the white dwarf has an effective temperature of 3550 K and surface gravity of log $g$ = 7.45 ± 0.13 or log $g$ = 7.49 ± 0.13 for a CO or He core, respectively, when compared against synthetic spectra of ultra-cool white dwarf atmosphere models. The system has slightly subsolar metallicity with -0.25 < [Fe/H] < 0.0, and a spatial velocity of (U, V, W) = (-114.26 ± 0.24, 222.94 ± 0.60, 10.25 ± 0.34) km s-1, the first radial velocity and metallicity measurements of an ultra-cool white dwarf. This makes it the first and only benchmark of its kind to date.},
doi = {10.1093/mnras/staa584},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
number = 4,
volume = 493,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}

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