Parsons, S.G., Gänsicke, B.T., Marsh, T.R. et al. (17 more authors) (2017) Testing the white dwarf mass-radius relationship with eclipsing binaries. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 470 (4). pp. 4473-4492. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
We present high-precision, model-independent, mass and radius measurements for 16 white dwarfs in detached eclipsing binaries and combine these with previously published data to test the theoretical white dwarf mass–radius relationship. We reach a mean precision of 2.4 per cent in mass and 2.7 per cent in radius, with our best measurements reaching a precision of 0.3 per cent in mass and 0.5 per cent in radius. We find excellent agreement between the measured and predicted radii across a wide range of masses and temperatures. We also find the radii of all white dwarfs with masses less than 0.48 M⊙ to be fully consistent with helium core models, but they are on average 9 per cent larger than those of carbon–oxygen core models. In contrast, white dwarfs with masses larger than 0.52 M⊙ all have radii consistent with carbon–oxygen core models. Moreover, we find that all but one of the white dwarfs in our sample have radii consistent with possessing thick surface hydrogen envelopes (10−5 ≥ MH/MWD ≥ 10−4), implying that the surface hydrogen layers of these white dwarfs are not obviously affected by common envelope evolution.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | binaries: eclipsing; stars: fundamental parameters; stars: interiors; white dwarfs |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL ST/M001350/1 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL ST/P00721X/1 LEVERHULME TRUST (THE) ECF-2016-316 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jul 2017 09:29 |
Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2017 06:44 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx1522 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stx1522 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:118190 |