The ELM Survey. VIII. Ninety-eight Double White Dwarf Binaries

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  • Warren R. Brown
  • Mukremin Kilic
  • Alekzander Kosakowski
  • Jeff J. Andrews
  • Craig O. Heinke
  • Marcel A. Agueros
  • Fernando Camilo
  • A. Gianninas
  • J. J. Hermes
  • Scott J. Kenyon

We present the final sample of 98 detached double white dwarf (WD) binaries found in the Extremely Low Mass (ELM) Survey, a spectroscopic survey targeting M He-core WDs completed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint. Over the course of the survey we observed ancillary low-mass WD candidates like GD 278, which we show is a P = 0.19 day double WD binary, as well as candidates that turn out to be field blue straggler/subdwarf A-type stars with luminosities too high to be WDs given their Gaia parallaxes. Here, we define a clean sample of ELM WDs that is complete within our target selection and magnitude range 15 g(0) P <1.5 day double WD binaries, 35% of which belong to the Galactic halo. We infer that these are mostly He+CO WD binaries given the measurement constraints. The merger rate of the observed He+CO WD binaries exceeds the formation rate of stable mass-transfer AM CVn binaries by a factor of 25, and so the majority of He+CO WD binaries must experience unstable mass transfer and merge. The systems with the shortest periods, such as J0651+2844, are signature LISA verification binaries that can be studied with gravitational waves and light.

Original languageEnglish
Article number49
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume889
Issue number1
Number of pages17
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jan 2020

    Research areas

  • White dwarf stars, Compact binary stars, Galaxy stellar content, COMMON-ENVELOPE BINARIES, AM CVN STARS, NEUTRON-STAR, SDA PROBLEM, SDSS, POPULATION, CATALOG, SEARCH, SAMPLE, GAIA

ID: 247498639