The Dearth of Massive, Helium-rich White Dwarfs in Young Open Star Clusters

Spectra have been obtained of 21 white dwarfs (WDs) in the direction of the young, rich open star cluster NGC 2099. This represents an appreciable fraction (>30%) of the cluster's total WD population. The mean derived mass of the sample is 0.8 M_solar-about 0.2 M_solar larger than the mean seen among field WDs. A surprising result is that all of the NGC 2099 WDs have hydrogen-rich atmospheres (DAs); none exhibit helium-rich ones (DBs) or any other spectral class. The number ratio in the field at the temperatures of the NGC 2099 WDs is DA/DB ~ 3.5. While the probability of seeing no DB WDs in NGC 2099 solely by chance is ~2%, if we include WDs in other open clusters of similar age it then becomes highly unlikely that the dearth of DB WDs in young open clusters is just a statistical fluctuation. We explore possible reasons for the lack of DBs in these clusters and conclude that the most promising scenario for the DA/DB number ratio discrepancy in young clusters is that hot, high-mass WDs do not develop large enough helium convection zones to allow helium to be brought to the surface and turn a hydrogen-rich WD into a helium-rich one.

Based on observations with Gemini (run ID GN-2002B-Q-11) and Keck. Gemini is an international partnership managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.