_version_ 1866918251655593984
author Pala, Anna F.
Raddi, Roberto
Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto
Gänsicke, Boris T.
Anderson, Richard I.
Belloni, Diogo
Binnenfeld, Avraham
Breedt, Elmé
Buckley, David
Cunningham, Tim
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Escorza, Ana
Korol, Valeriya
Kupfer, Thomas
de Martino, Domitilla
Merc, Jaroslav
Meza, Joaquin
Parsons, Steven
Pelisoli, Ingrid
Reindl, Nicole
Rodríguez-Gil, Pablo
Santos-García, Alejandro
Scaringi, Simone
Szkody, Paula
Toloza, Odette
Torres, Santiago
Uzundag, Murat
Zorotovic, Monica
author_facet Pala, Anna F.
Raddi, Roberto
Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto
Gänsicke, Boris T.
Anderson, Richard I.
Belloni, Diogo
Binnenfeld, Avraham
Breedt, Elmé
Buckley, David
Cunningham, Tim
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Escorza, Ana
Korol, Valeriya
Kupfer, Thomas
de Martino, Domitilla
Merc, Jaroslav
Meza, Joaquin
Parsons, Steven
Pelisoli, Ingrid
Reindl, Nicole
Rodríguez-Gil, Pablo
Santos-García, Alejandro
Scaringi, Simone
Szkody, Paula
Toloza, Odette
Torres, Santiago
Uzundag, Murat
Zorotovic, Monica
contents White dwarf binaries are fundamental astrophysical probes. They represent ideal laboratories to test the models of binary evolution, which also apply to the sources of gravitational waves, whose detection led to the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. Moreover, their final fate is intimately linked to Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia), i.e. the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf following the interaction with a companion star, which have become the fundamental yardsticks on cosmological distance scales and led to the discovery of dark energy and the award of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Finally, white dwarf binaries play a crucial role in influencing star formation and chemical evolution of the Galaxy by injecting energy into, and enriching, the interstellar medium with material ejected during nova eruptions and SN Ia explosions. In the next decade, the advent of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) at the Vera Rubin Observatory will lead to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of white dwarf binaries. Nonetheless, the intrinsic faintness of the majority of these systems will prevent their spectroscopic characterisation with the instruments available in the 2030s. Hence ESO's Expanding Horizons call is timely for planning a future transformative facility, capable of delivering phase-resolved spectroscopic observations of faint white dwarf binaries, which are key to advancing our understanding of stellar and Galactic evolution and cosmology.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14800
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle White Dwarf Binaries: Probes of Future Astrophysics
Pala, Anna F.
Raddi, Roberto
Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto
Gänsicke, Boris T.
Anderson, Richard I.
Belloni, Diogo
Binnenfeld, Avraham
Breedt, Elmé
Buckley, David
Cunningham, Tim
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Escorza, Ana
Korol, Valeriya
Kupfer, Thomas
de Martino, Domitilla
Merc, Jaroslav
Meza, Joaquin
Parsons, Steven
Pelisoli, Ingrid
Reindl, Nicole
Rodríguez-Gil, Pablo
Santos-García, Alejandro
Scaringi, Simone
Szkody, Paula
Toloza, Odette
Torres, Santiago
Uzundag, Murat
Zorotovic, Monica
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
White dwarf binaries are fundamental astrophysical probes. They represent ideal laboratories to test the models of binary evolution, which also apply to the sources of gravitational waves, whose detection led to the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. Moreover, their final fate is intimately linked to Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia), i.e. the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf following the interaction with a companion star, which have become the fundamental yardsticks on cosmological distance scales and led to the discovery of dark energy and the award of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Finally, white dwarf binaries play a crucial role in influencing star formation and chemical evolution of the Galaxy by injecting energy into, and enriching, the interstellar medium with material ejected during nova eruptions and SN Ia explosions. In the next decade, the advent of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) at the Vera Rubin Observatory will lead to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of white dwarf binaries. Nonetheless, the intrinsic faintness of the majority of these systems will prevent their spectroscopic characterisation with the instruments available in the 2030s. Hence ESO's Expanding Horizons call is timely for planning a future transformative facility, capable of delivering phase-resolved spectroscopic observations of faint white dwarf binaries, which are key to advancing our understanding of stellar and Galactic evolution and cosmology.
title White Dwarf Binaries: Probes of Future Astrophysics
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14800