Fundamental Tests of White Dwarf Cooling Physics with Wide Binaries

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Barrientos, Manuel, Kilic, Mukremin, Bergeron, Pierre, Blouin, Simon, Brown, Warren R., Andrews, Jeff J.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Barrientos, Manuel
Kilic, Mukremin
Bergeron, Pierre
Blouin, Simon
Brown, Warren R.
Andrews, Jeff J.
author_facet Barrientos, Manuel
Kilic, Mukremin
Bergeron, Pierre
Blouin, Simon
Brown, Warren R.
Andrews, Jeff J.
contents We present follow-up spectroscopy and a detailed model atmosphere analysis of 29 wide double white dwarfs, including eight systems with a crystallized C/O core member. We use state-of-the-art evolutionary models to constrain the physical parameters of each star, including the total age. Assuming that the members of wide binaries are coeval, any age difference between the binary members can be used to test the cooling physics for white dwarf stars, including potential delays due to crystallization and $^{22}$Ne distillation. We use our control sample of 14 wide binaries with non-crystallized members to show that this method works well; the control sample shows an age difference of only $Δ$Age = $-0.03 \pm$ 0.15 Gyr between its members. For the eight crystallized C/O core systems we find a cooling anomaly of $Δ$Age= 1.13$^{+1.20}_{-1.07}$ Gyr. Even though our results are consistent with a small additional cooling delay ($\sim1$ Gyr) from $^{22}$Ne distillation and other neutron-rich impurities, the large uncertainties make this result not statistically significant. Nevertheless, we rule out cooling delays longer than 3.6 Gyr at the 99.7% ($3σ$) confidence level for 0.6-0.9 $M_{\odot}$ white dwarfs. Further progress requires larger samples of wide binaries with crystallized massive white dwarf members. We provide a list of subgiant + white dwarf binaries that could be used for this purpose in the future.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_18763
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fundamental Tests of White Dwarf Cooling Physics with Wide Binaries
Barrientos, Manuel
Kilic, Mukremin
Bergeron, Pierre
Blouin, Simon
Brown, Warren R.
Andrews, Jeff J.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
We present follow-up spectroscopy and a detailed model atmosphere analysis of 29 wide double white dwarfs, including eight systems with a crystallized C/O core member. We use state-of-the-art evolutionary models to constrain the physical parameters of each star, including the total age. Assuming that the members of wide binaries are coeval, any age difference between the binary members can be used to test the cooling physics for white dwarf stars, including potential delays due to crystallization and $^{22}$Ne distillation. We use our control sample of 14 wide binaries with non-crystallized members to show that this method works well; the control sample shows an age difference of only $Δ$Age = $-0.03 \pm$ 0.15 Gyr between its members. For the eight crystallized C/O core systems we find a cooling anomaly of $Δ$Age= 1.13$^{+1.20}_{-1.07}$ Gyr. Even though our results are consistent with a small additional cooling delay ($\sim1$ Gyr) from $^{22}$Ne distillation and other neutron-rich impurities, the large uncertainties make this result not statistically significant. Nevertheless, we rule out cooling delays longer than 3.6 Gyr at the 99.7% ($3σ$) confidence level for 0.6-0.9 $M_{\odot}$ white dwarfs. Further progress requires larger samples of wide binaries with crystallized massive white dwarf members. We provide a list of subgiant + white dwarf binaries that could be used for this purpose in the future.
title Fundamental Tests of White Dwarf Cooling Physics with Wide Binaries
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.18763