Physics
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21442903n&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #429.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.700
Physics
Scientific paper
We study the cooling evolution of helium-rich, low-mass white dwarfs using the latest generation of input physics (Saumon, Chabrier and Van Horn equation of state, OPAL opacities, Bergeron and Fontaine atmosphere models). In particular we examine the differences between the cooling evolution of white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich and helium-rich envelopes. Because the helium-rich cases cool more rapidly, they provide us with a lower limit for the age of the `helium white dwarfs’ that are found orbiting millisecond pulsars. These white dwarfs are typically located in wide binary millisecond pulsar systems and were presumably formed simultaneously with the onset of radio emissions from the pulsar. Once the luminosity and effective temperature of these white dwarfs is determined, they can be used as chronometers for the age of the binary pulsar system. We compare our limits for the ages of various binary millisecond pulsars with those ages inferred from the spin-down time of the pulsar and discuss the level of disagreement.
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