The ELM Survey. VII. Orbital Properties of Low-Mass White Dwarf Binaries

We present the discovery of 15 extremely low-mass (5\lt {log}g\lt 7) white dwarf (WD) candidates, 9 of which are in ultra-compact double-degenerate binaries. Our targeted extremely low-mass Survey sample now includes 76 binaries. The sample has a lognormal distribution of orbital periods with a median period of 5.4 hr. The velocity amplitudes imply that the binary companions have a normal distribution of mass with 0.76 M_⊙ mean and 0.25 M_⊙ dispersion. Thus extremely low-mass WDs are found in binaries with a typical mass ratio of 1:4. Statistically speaking, 95% of the WD binaries have a total mass below the Chandrasekhar mass, and thus are not type Ia supernova progenitors. Yet half of the observed binaries will merge in less than 6 Gyr due to gravitational wave radiation; probable outcomes include single massive WDs and stable mass transfer AM CVn binaries.

Based on observations obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.