Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004aas...20510305l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society Meeting 205, #103.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 36, p.1515
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
3
Scientific paper
We present the results of our investigation of white dwarfs in several hundred close binary systems from the SDSS. The close binary systems in this study are believed to be the progenitors of cataclysmic variables. Since approximately 25% of the known cataclysmic variables have magnetic white dwarfs, many of the white dwarfs in our large sample of pre-cataclysmic binary systems should have a measurable magnetic field. A cursory inspection of the composite spectra of these systems however, reveals no obvious magnetic white dwarfs, possibly because of the low signal-to-noise of the spectrum and/or the contamination of the white dwarf spectrum by the low mass companion. To reduce the contamination, we first subtract the low mass companion from the composite SDSS spectrum. We then smooth and compare the Balmer absorption features of the remaining DA white dwarf spectrum to magnetic models at a variety of field strengths. Our search reveals only about 10 magnetic white dwarf stars in these systems. All of the candidate magnetic white dwarfs have relatively low magnetic field strengths (< 10 MG), as expected. Our techniques for finding magnetic white dwarfs in these systems, their physical properties, and the implications of our results are discussed.
This work was supported in part by NSF Grant AST02-05875.
Hawley Suzanne L.
Lemagie Mara P.
Liebert James
Schmidt Gary D.
Silvestri Nicole M.
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