Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

White Dwarfs In Common Proper Motion Binary Systems: Mass Distribution And Kinematics, Nicole M. Silvestri, Terry D. Oswalt, Matt A. Wood, Jonathan Allyn Smith, Iain Neill Reid, Edward M. Sión

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

We present the mass distribution, gravitational redshifts, radial velocities, and space motions of white dwarf stars in common proper motion binary systems. The mass distribution we derive for the 41 DA white dwarfs in this study has a mean of 0.68 ± 0.04 M⊙. This distribution has a slightly higher mean and larger dispersion than most previous white dwarf studies. We hypothesize that this is due to a higher fraction of cool (average Teff ~ 10,000 K), hence old, white dwarfs in our sample. Our results indicate that samples made up of predominantly cool, old white dwarf stars tend to …