A Continuing Census of White Dwarfs Within 40 Parsecs of the Sun

Details A Continuing Census of White Dwarfs Within 40 Parsecs of the Sun A Continuing Census of White Dwarfs Within 40 Parsecs of the Sun

Feb 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011noao.prop..135l&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2011A-0135

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

We propose to obtain spectra for 90 new white dwarf candidates suspected to be within 40 parsecs of the Sun, as a continuation of our survey of white dwarfs in the Solar Neiborhood. Spectral analysis will confirm the white dwarf status and provide reliable distance estimates for all objects. The census of nearby white dwarfs is currently complete only to about 20 parsecs of the Sun, a volume which includes only a little over 100 white dwarfs. The main limitation of the current census is that it is largely based on follow-up investigations of stars with very large proper motion. Our own survey investigates stars down to a much smaller proper motion limit (40 mas yr^-1) which minimizes the kinematic bias and provides a statistically complete census of white dwarfs to a significantly larger distance. We have now obtained spectra for 67% of our list of white dwarf candidates, confirming 136 new white dwarfs. Fifty-seven of them are within 40 parsecs. We request additional nights to observe the remaining 90 that are visible in 2011A. Our survey has been efficient in locating faint, cool white dwarfs, which will help in the study of the cool end of the white dwarf luminosity function. Finally, objects of great astrophysical interest were found, such as the very cool DQ LSPM J0902+2010, the highly magnetic PM I11322+2809, and the extremely contaminated DA+dM binary system PM I04586+6209. We expect additional objects of interest to show up in our extended program, from which we expect to obtain a near- complete census of white dwarfs to a distance of 40 parsecs.

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