Constraining the Initial-Final Mass Relation with Wide Double White Dwarfs
Abstract
Population synthesis models predict the existence of large numbers of wide binaries for which the end state is a wide double white dwarf (DWD) system. I discuss the methods I used to find these systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which ultimately increased the known number of candidate binaries from ~45 to 112. I then describe an observational campaign to obtain spectra of the bright (g < 18 mag) DWD candidates; fitting these to synthetic models provided masses and cooling ages for the white dwarfs in these pairs. Because these binaries are coeval but evolve as independent stars, they are unique stellar laboratories. In particular, I present a method I applied to this wide DWD sample to place new constraints on the initial-final mass relation, which relates a given main-sequence star to the mass of the white dwarf it will produce. Our analysis avoids some of the difficult-to-model systematics introduced by other methods, generating independent and complementary constraints.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #225
- Pub Date:
- January 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015AAS...22542801A