On the incidence of weak magnetic fields in DA white dwarfs
Abstract
Context. About 10% of white dwarfs have magnetic fields with strength in the range between about 105 and 5 × 108 G. It is not known whether the remaining white dwarfs are not magnetic, or if they have magnetic fields too weak to be detected with the techniques adopted in the large surveys. Information is particularly lacking for the cooler (and generally fainter) white dwarfs.
Aims: We describe the results of the first survey specifically devised to clarify the detection frequency of kG-level magnetic fields in cool DA white dwarfs.
Methods: Using the FORS1 instrument of the ESO VLT, we have obtained Balmer line circular spectropolarimetric measurements of a small sample of cool (DA6 - DA8) white dwarfs. Using FORS and UVES archive data, we have also revised numerous white dwarf field measurements previously published in the literature.
Results: We have discovered an apparently constant longitudinal magnetic field of ~9.5 kG in the DA6 white dwarf
Conclusions: We find that the probability of detecting a field of kG strength in a DA white dwarf is of the order of 10% for each of the cool and hot DA stars. If there is a lower cutoff to field strength in white dwarfs, or a field below which all white dwarfs are magnetic, the current precision of measurements is not yet sufficient to reveal it.
- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- September 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201219829
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1208.3650
- Bibcode:
- 2012A&A...545A..30L
- Keywords:
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- white dwarfs;
- stars: magnetic field;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in Astronomy &