Presaging Doppler beaming discoveries of double white dwarfs during the Rubin LSST era

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Pallathadka, Gautham Adamane, Zenati, Yossef, Zakamska, Nadia L., Nguyen, Ngan H., Piro, Anthony L.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866910021656248320
author Pallathadka, Gautham Adamane
Zenati, Yossef
Zakamska, Nadia L.
Nguyen, Ngan H.
Piro, Anthony L.
author_facet Pallathadka, Gautham Adamane
Zenati, Yossef
Zakamska, Nadia L.
Nguyen, Ngan H.
Piro, Anthony L.
contents Double white dwarfs (DWDs) are by far the most common compact binaries in the Milky Way, are important low-frequency gravitational-wave sources, and in some cases merge to become Type Ia supernovae. So far, no DWD has been identified solely through relativistic Doppler beaming, even though the beaming amplitude directly relates to the radial velocity semi-amplitude. In this work, we initiate a comprehensive binary population synthesis using SeBa and incorporate the resulting binaries into a tripartite Galaxy model. Our proof-of-concept simulations demonstrate that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) can reliably recover relatively bright ($r \lesssim20~$mag) unequal-mass binaries in compact orbits with P $\approx$ 10-600 minutes with moderate to high inclinations. We find that LSST can detect at least 287 short-period DWDs, of which 47 are LISA-detectable gravitational wave sources. LSST lightcurves allow us to readily determine the period and fully characterize the orbit, in contrast with the challenges of orbit determination for DWDs in spectroscopic searches. The formation of unequal mass, short-period DWDs strongly depends on the assumptions regarding the mass-transfer phases during binary population synthesis, and the total number and characteristics of Doppler-beamed DWD systems observed in LSST will provide new tests of models of stellar binary evolution. Here, we lay the foundation for the comprehensive integration of synthetic Galactic binary population into realistic LSST survey simulations, thereby enabling quantitative forecasts of the number and characteristics of any binary sub-population during the LSST era.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_13137
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Presaging Doppler beaming discoveries of double white dwarfs during the Rubin LSST era
Pallathadka, Gautham Adamane
Zenati, Yossef
Zakamska, Nadia L.
Nguyen, Ngan H.
Piro, Anthony L.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Double white dwarfs (DWDs) are by far the most common compact binaries in the Milky Way, are important low-frequency gravitational-wave sources, and in some cases merge to become Type Ia supernovae. So far, no DWD has been identified solely through relativistic Doppler beaming, even though the beaming amplitude directly relates to the radial velocity semi-amplitude. In this work, we initiate a comprehensive binary population synthesis using SeBa and incorporate the resulting binaries into a tripartite Galaxy model. Our proof-of-concept simulations demonstrate that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) can reliably recover relatively bright ($r \lesssim20~$mag) unequal-mass binaries in compact orbits with P $\approx$ 10-600 minutes with moderate to high inclinations. We find that LSST can detect at least 287 short-period DWDs, of which 47 are LISA-detectable gravitational wave sources. LSST lightcurves allow us to readily determine the period and fully characterize the orbit, in contrast with the challenges of orbit determination for DWDs in spectroscopic searches. The formation of unequal mass, short-period DWDs strongly depends on the assumptions regarding the mass-transfer phases during binary population synthesis, and the total number and characteristics of Doppler-beamed DWD systems observed in LSST will provide new tests of models of stellar binary evolution. Here, we lay the foundation for the comprehensive integration of synthetic Galactic binary population into realistic LSST survey simulations, thereby enabling quantitative forecasts of the number and characteristics of any binary sub-population during the LSST era.
title Presaging Doppler beaming discoveries of double white dwarfs during the Rubin LSST era
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13137