Search for: All records

ABSTRACT Observations of planetary material polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs are an important probe of the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Medium- and high-resolution optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven white dwarfs with known circumstellar dust and gas emission are presented. Detections or meaningful upper limits for photospheric absorption lines are measured for: C, O, Na, S, P, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, and Ni. For 16 white dwarfs with known observable gaseous emission discs (and measured photospheric abundances), there is no evidence that their accretion rates differ, on average, from those without detectable gaseous emission. This suggests that, typically, accretion is not enhanced by gas drag. At the effective temperature range of the white dwarfs in this sample (16 000–25 000 K) the abundance ratios of elements are more consistent than absolute abundances when comparing abundances derived from spectroscopic white dwarf parameters versus photometric white dwarf parameters. Crucially, this highlights that the uncertainties on white dwarf parameters do not prevent white dwarfs from being utilized to study planetary composition. The abundances of oxygen and silicon for the three hydrogen-dominated white dwarfs in the sample with both optical and ultraviolet spectra differ by 0.62 dex depending on if they are derived from the optical or ultraviolet spectra. This optical/ultraviolet discrepancy may be related to differences in the atmospheric depth of line formation; further investigations into the white dwarf atmospheric modelling are needed to understand this discrepancy. 

ABSTRACT We search for merger products among the 25 most massive white dwarfs in the Montreal White Dwarf Database 100 pc sample through follow-up spectroscopy and high-cadence photometry. We find an unusually high fraction, 40 per cent, of magnetic white dwarfs among this population. In addition, we identify four outliers in transverse velocity and detect rapid rotation in five objects. Our results show that $$56^{+9}_{-10}$$ per cent of the $$M\approx 1.3\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$$ ultramassive white dwarfs form through mergers. This fraction is significantly higher than expected from the default binary population synthesis calculations using the α prescription (with αλ = 2), and provides further support for efficient orbital shrinkage, such as with low values of the common-envelope efficiency.