The Initial-Final Mass Relation: Direct Constraints at the Low-Mass End

By J. Kalirai, Brad M. S. Hansen, D. Kelson, D. Reitzel, R. Rich, H. Richer. 2007

271 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The initial-final mass relation represents a mapping between the mass of a white dwarf remnant and the mass that the hydrogen-burning main-sequence star that created it once had. The empirical relation thus far has been constrained using a sample of ~40 stars in young open clusters, ranging in initial mass from ~2.75 to 7 M☉, and shows a general trend that connects higher mass main-sequence stars with higher mass white dwarfs. In this paper, we present CFHT CFH12K photometric and Keck LRIS multiobject spectroscopic observations of a sample of 22 white dwarfs in two older open clusters, NGC 7789 (t = 1.4 Gyr) and NGC 6819 (t = 2.5 Gyr). We measure masses for the highest signal-to-noise ratio spectra by fitting the Balmer lines to atmosphere models and place the first direct constraints on the low-mass end of the initial-final mass relation. Our results indicate that the observed general trend at higher masses continues down to low masses, with Minitial = 1.6 M☉ main-sequence stars forming Mfinal = 0.54 M☉ white dwarfs. When added to our new data from the very old cluster NGC 6791, the relation is extended down to Minitial = 1.16 M☉ (corresponding to Mfinal = 0.53 M☉). This extension of the relation represents a fourfold increase in the total number of hydrogen-burning stars for which the integrated mass loss can now be calculated from empirical data, assuming a Salpeter initial mass function. The new leverage at the low-mass end is used to derive a purely empirical initial-final mass relation. The sample of white dwarfs in these clusters also shows several interesting systems that we discuss further: a DB (helium) white dwarf, a magnetic white dwarf, a DAB (mixed hydrogen/helium atmosphere or a double degenerate DA+DB) white dwarf(s), and two possible equal-mass DA double degenerate binary systems.

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Citations in the corpus

FORETELLINGS OF RAGNARÖK: WORLD-ENGULFING ASYMPTOTIC GIANTS AND THE INHERITANCE OF WHITE DWARFS (2012, unknown): “7M⊙ (e.g., Weidemann 1987; Kalirai et al. 2008).”
The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations (2011, background): “The masses of the white dwarfs are estimated as mWD = 0.109mini + 0.394 [M⊙], which is a linear fit to the masses of observed white dwarfs (Kalirai et al. 2008).”
TOWARD A COMPLETE ACCOUNTING OF ENERGY AND MOMENTUM FROM STELLAR FEEDBACK IN GALAXY FORMATION SIMULATIONS (2012, background): “Kalirai et al. (2008) provides relation between the initial stellar mass and final mass of the remnant in the relevant mass range: Mfinal = (0.109±0.007)Minitial + 0.394±0.025M .”
N-body modelling of globular clusters: masses, mass-to-light ratios and intermediate-mass black holes (2016, methodology): “The theoretical M/LV values were calculated assuming a Kroupa (2001) IMF with mass limits of 0.1 and 100 M⊙, the Kalirai et al. (2008) initial-final mass ratio for white dwarfs and a 10% retention fraction of neutron stars and black holes in the clusters.”
MESA ISOCHRONES AND STELLAR TRACKS (MIST). I. SOLAR-SCALED MODELS (2016, methodology): “Observed initial and final masses for each WD in a cluster are inferred using the following method (see e.g., Kalirai et al. 2008 for details).”
Magnetic White Dwarfs (2015, unknown): “…and Saha (1986); (99) Angel et al. (1975); (100) Cohen et al. (1993); (101) Angel et al. (1985); (102)Wickramasinghe and Ferrario (1988a); (103) Jordan (1992); (104) Kalirai et al. (2008); (105)Maxted et al. (2000); (106) Brinkworth et al. (2005); (108) Landstreet et al. (2012);…”
The formation of disc galaxies in a ΛCDM universe (2010, methodology): “The mass-loss during the ∆t time-span is calculated using the best fit initial-final mass relation of Kalirai et al. (2008): Mwind = 0.891 − 0.394/〈M〉.”
THE COSMIC CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA RATE DOES NOT MATCH THE MASSIVE-STAR FORMATION RATE (2011, result): “This is consistent with the highest masses estimated for white dwarf progenitors,∼ 7M⊙ (Kalirai et al. 2008; Williams et al. 2009).”
NEW COOLING SEQUENCES FOR OLD WHITE DWARFS (2010, background): “Also shown are the observational results of Kalirai et al. (2008)—with their corresponding error bars—which correspond to metallicities very close to the solar metallicity—filled and open circles—and the results for individual white dwarfs in common proper motion pairs of Catalán et al.…”
LSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products (2008, background): “These large populations of disk and halo white dwarfs will provide unprecedented constraints on the luminosity function of these stars, which will directly yield independent ages for the Galactic disk and halo (e.g., through the initial-final mass relation, Kalirai et al. 2008).”
The frequency of planetary debris around young white dwarfs (2014, background): “The white dwarf mass relates to the mass of its progenitor via the initial-mass to final-mass relation (Weidemann 1984, 2000; Catalán et al. 2008; Kalirai et al. 2008; Williams et al. 2009; Dobbie et al. 2009).”
ACCELERATING COMPACT OBJECT MERGERS IN TRIPLE SYSTEMS WITH THE KOZAI RESONANCE: A MECHANISM FOR “PROMPT” TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE, GAMMA-RAY BURSTS, AND OTHER EXOTICA (2010, methodology): “WD-WD Binaries & Triples 2 Typically, a Cepheid with a≃ 1 day period corresponds to a∼ 3 M⊙ main sequence A0 star, which produces a≃ 0.7 M⊙ WD (e.g., Kalirai et al. 2008), the minimum required for a Chandrasekhar mass, equal mass ratio binary.”
The White Dwarf Initial–Final Mass Relation for Progenitor Stars from 0.85 to 7.5 M⊙ (2018, methodology): “Deep and consistent BV photometry is available for these first two clusters from Kalirai et al. (2008, 2001b).”
The initial–final mass relationship of white dwarfs revisited: effect on the luminosity function and mass distribution (2008, methodology): “The recent study of Kalirai et al. (2008) based in old open clusters (NGC 7789, NGC 6819 and NGC6791) has extended this mass range to smaller masses.”
Super and massive AGB stars - IV. Final fates - Initial to final mass relation (2014, unknown): “The IFMRs compared are those by Weidemann (2000), Ferrario et al. (2005), Catalán et al. (2008), Williams et al. (2009), Kalirai et al. (2008) and Salaris et al. (2009), with the majority of these observationally based IFMRS derived from studies of WDs within star clusters.”
Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology (2008, methodology): “II stars and in the resulting white dwarf stars (Kalirai et al. 2008) ---these magnitude variations imply SNIa could be used to measure acceleration in the expansion of the universe.”
Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies (2013, background): “The initial-final mass relation for white dwarfs can be reasonably well constrained by measuring white dwarf masses in open clusters with known ages (e.g., Kalirai et al. 2008).”