Gemini spectra of 12000 K white dwarf stars
Abstract
We report signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) ~= 100 optical spectra for four DA white dwarf stars acquired with the GMOS spectrograph of the 8-m Gemini north telescope. These stars have 18 < g < 19 and are around Teff ~ 12000 K, where the hydrogen lines are close to maximum. Our purpose is to test if the effective temperatures and surface gravities derived from the relatively low-S/N (<S/N> ~ 21) optical spectra acquired by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey through model atmosphere fitting are trustworthy. Our spectra range from 3800 to 6000 Å, therefore including Hβ to H9. The H8 line was only marginally present in the SDSS spectra, but is crucial to determine the gravity. When we compare the values published by Kleinman et al. and Eisenstein et al. with our line-profile technique (LPT) fits, the average differences are: ΔTeff ~= 320 K, systematically lower in the SDSS, and Δ log g ~= 0.24 dex, systematically larger in the SDSS. The correlation between the gravity and the effective temperature can only be broken at wavelengths bluer than 3800 Å. The uncertainties in Teff are 60 per cent larger, and in log g larger by a factor of 4, than the internal uncertainties of Kleinman et al. and Eisenstein et al.
Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNPq (Brazil) and CONICET (Argentina). E-mail: kepler@if.ufrgs.br- Publication:
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- November 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10992.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0610334
- Bibcode:
- 2006MNRAS.372.1799K
- Keywords:
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- techniques: spectroscopic;
- white dwarfs;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages and 8 figures