AN IMPROVED SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF DA WHITE DWARFS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATA RELEASE 4

By P.-E. Tremblay, Pierre Bergeron, A. Gianninas. 2011

307 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present an improved spectroscopic and photometric analysis of hydrogen-line DA white dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4) based on model atmospheres that include improved Stark broadening profiles with non-ideal gas effects. We also perform a careful visual inspection of all spectroscopic fits with high signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns > 12) and present improved atmospheric parameters (Teff and log g) for each white dwarf. Through a comparison of spectroscopic and photometric temperatures, we report the discovery of 35 DA+DB/DC double degenerate candidates and two helium-rich DA stars. We also determine that a cutoff at S/N = 15 optimizes the size and quality of the sample for computing the mean mass of DA white dwarfs, for which we report a value of 0.613 M☉. We compare our results to previous analyses of the SDSS DR4 and find a good agreement if we account for the shift produced by the improved Stark profiles. Finally, the properties of DA white dwarfs in the SDSS are weighed against those of the Villanova White Dwarf Catalog sample of Gianninas et al. We find systematically lower masses (by about 3% on average), a difference that we trace back to the data reduction procedure of the SDSS. We conclude that a better understanding of these differences will be important to determine the absolute temperature scale and mean mass of DA white dwarfs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/383b72a7ff71672356b2012c8c2305bcaef9f218

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

Techniques and Review of Absolute Flux Calibration from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-Infrared (2014, methodology): “Our Tlusty NLTE models (version 204) include the Tremblay & Bergeron (2009) Stark profiles (see also Tremblay et al. 2011, G11), and incorporate similar physics to the Rauch models.”
The White Dwarf Initial–Final Mass Relation for Progenitor Stars from 0.85 to 7.5 M⊙ (2018, methodology): “The white dwarf atmospheric analysis in our paper series has and continues to use the 1D models of Tremblay et al. (2011) with the Stark broadening profiles of 8 Available at http://www.ucolick.org/∼xavier/IDL/ Tremblay & Bergeron (2009) and the automated spectral fitting techniques of Bergeron et…”
AGaiaData Release 2 catalogue of white dwarfs and a comparison with SDSS (2018, methodology): “We employ standard H-atmosphere spectral models (Tremblay et al. 2011) including the Lα red wing absorption of Kowalski & Saumon (2006) and covering the range 1500 < Teff (K) < 140 000 and 6.5 < log g < 9.5.”
Spectroscopic analysis of DA white dwarfs with 3D model atmospheres (2013, methodology): “In particular, the agreement is better between 1D hydrostatic structures relying on the opacity binning procedure (Caffau & Ludwig 2007), and the Tremblay et al. (2011a) white dwarf models with 1813 carefully chosen frequencies for the radiative transfer.”
SDSS DR7 WHITE DWARF CATALOG (2012, methodology): “We ﬁnd reliable classiﬁcations can be had from spectra with S / N > 15, in agreement with Tremblay et al. (2011).”
White Dwarf Rotation as a Function of Mass and a Dichotomy of Mode Line Widths: Kepler Observations of 27 Pulsating DA White Dwarfs through K2 Campaign 8 (2017, methodology): “A full description of the models and fitting procedures is contained in Tremblay et al. (2011).”
On the Spectral Evolution of Hot White Dwarf Stars. I. A Detailed Model Atmosphere Analysis of Hot White Dwarfs from SDSS DR12 (2020, background): “Those belong to the group of classical DAO white dwarfs, which have been known for a long time and extensively studied over the years (Bergeron et al. 1994; Napiwotzki 1999; Good et al. 2005; Gianninas et al. 2010; Tremblay et al. 2011; Kepler et al. 2019).”
Magnetic white dwarf stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2012, methodology): “Calculations using realistic 3D simulation of convection seem to confirm this assumption (Tremblay et al. 2011a).”
A SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF BRIGHT, HYDROGEN-RICH WHITE DWARFS (2011, methodology): “Tremblay et al. (2011a) conclude that issues with the reduction of the SDSS data still remain and are the reason for the observed shift.”
The Sirius System and Its Astrophysical Puzzles: Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-based Astrometry (2017, methodology): “These tables are based on evolutionary sequences and model atmospheres calculated by Holberg & Bergeron (2006), Kowalski & Saumon (2006), Tremblay et al. (2011), and Bergeron et al. (2011). measure 89.60± 0.75 km s−1.”
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD: A DETAILED MODEL ATMOSPHERE ANALYSIS OF NEARBY WHITE DWARFS (2012, background): “The best characterization of the highlog g problem can be found in the recent study of Tremblay et al. (2011a) who analyzed the DA stars identified in the Data Release 4 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.”
Three Hypervelocity White Dwarfs in Gaia DR2: Evidence for Dynamically Driven Double-degenerate Double-detonation Type Ia Supernovae (2018, methodology): “Using publicly available DB WD cooling tables1 (Holberg & Bergeron 2006; Kowalski & Saumon 2006; Tremblay et al. 2011; Bergeron et al. 2011), we find that a 0.6 (1.0)M WD that has cooled for 1 Gyr since its birth has an absolute visual magnitude of 12.9 (12.8).”