White dwarf-red dwarf binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Sample definition

Details White dwarf-red dwarf binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Sample definition White dwarf-red dwarf binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Sample definition

Aug 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008a%26a...486..843a&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 486, Issue 3, 2008, pp.843-853

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

3

Binaries: Spectroscopic, Stars: Late-Type, White Dwarfs

Scientific paper

Context: A significant fraction of binary stars consisting of a white dwarf and a low-mass main-sequence star (red dwarf) are expected to be close binaries that are the end products of common-envelope (CE) evolution. Aims: To gain a better understanding of CE evolution, we want to study white dwarf-red dwarf binaries. For this it is fundamental to establish a well-defined sample. Methods: To reduce contamination by more distant sources, such as quasars, we have selected candidate white dwarf-red dwarf binaries from the catalogue of proper motion stars drawn from the intersection of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the USNO-B1.0 catalogue. To separate single from binary sources and to cut spurious sources out, we define selection criteria based on a combination of the (u-g), (g-r), and (r-i) colours. Results: We evaluate and discuss the selection criteria on the basis of both the publicly available SDSS spectra and the predicted colours of white dwarf-red dwarf binaries. We define a sample of 651 binary candidates. However, we find that for r magnitudes brighter than ~16.5 the proper motion catalogue is heavily contaminated with sources that have incorrect colours due to the r magnitudes being relatively too faint, most likely due to saturation effects. Conclusions: We show that the level of contamination can be reduced by either excluding sources brighter than r = 16.5 mag or by excluding sources bluer than (u-g) = -0.5 or (g-r) = -0.6 and brighter than r = 16.0 mag. We expect ~85% of the remaining sources to be genuine white dwarf-red dwarf binaries. We estimate that we exclude ~5-10% of the white dwarf-red dwarf binaries in the proper motion catalogue.
A list of the complete sample is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/486/843

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