The White Dwarf Luminosity Function from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data

By H. Harris, J. Munn, M. Kilic, J. Liebert, K. Williams, Ted von Hippel, S. Levine, D. Monet, Daniel J. Eisenstein, S. Kleinman and 9 more. 2005

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A sample of white dwarfs is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 using their reduced proper motions, based on improved proper motions from combined SDSS and USNO-B data. Numerous SDSS and follow-up spectra (Kilic and coworkers) are used to quantify completeness and contamination of the sample; kinematics models are used to understand and correct for velocity-dependent selection biases. A luminosity function is constructed covering the range 7 < Mbol < 16, and its sensitivity to various assumptions and selection limits is discussed. The white dwarf luminosity function based on 6000 stars is remarkably smooth and rises nearly monotonically to Mbol = 15.3. It then drops abruptly, although the small number of low-luminosity stars in the sample and their unknown atmospheric composition prevent quantitative conclusions about this decline. Stars are identified that may have high tangential velocities, and a preliminary luminosity function is constructed for them.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/514713e19e8e263845a7597315a4171b6ecfbc2e

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Citations in the corpus

Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars (2010, background): “Shortly after the discovery of hot DQs, Montgomery et al. (2008a) reported the finding of the first variable hot DQstar, SDSS J142625.”
Type-Ia Supernova Rates and the Progenitor Problem: A Review (2011, background): “In the solar neighborhood the ratio of stellar mass to WD number is 18.5 M⊙/WD (based on the local stellar mass density, 0.085M⊙ pc −3, McMillan 2011; and the local WD number density, 0.0046 pc−3, Harris et al. 2006).”
AN IMPROVED SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF DA WHITE DWARFS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATA RELEASE 4 (2011, methodology): “The procedure used here, taken from Harris et al. (2006), seems realistic in terms of the galactic structure, but the ratio of the actual to the full galactic reddening along the line of sight is uncertain by at least a few percent, due to the simplicity of the parameterization.”
Found: The Missing Blue Opacity in Atmosphere Models of Cool Hydrogen White Dwarfs (2006, background): “The detection and analysis of large samples of cool white dwarfs over the past decade has led to a significant improvement in our knowledge of the chemical composition and evolution of their atmospheres (Harris et al. 2006; Kilic et al. 2006; Bergeron et al. 2001, 1997).”
A Catalog of Spectroscopically Confirmed White Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (2006, background): “These are being pursued by Harris et al. (2006) and K5l5ç et al. (2006).”
Axions and the Cooling of White Dwarf Stars (2008, methodology): “The first of these (Harris et al. 2006) was built from a sample of 6000 DA and non-DA white dwarfs with accurate photometry and proper motions culled from the SDSS Data Release 3 and the USNO-B catalogue, whereas the second one (DeGennaro et al. 2008) was constructed from a sample of 3528…”
The Initial-Final Mass Relation: Direct Constraints at the Low-Mass End (2007, background): “This has led to an improved white luminosity function for the disk of our Galaxy that shows an abrupt truncation at Mbol = 15.3 (Harris et al. 2006).”
On the Spectral Evolution of Hot White Dwarf Stars. I. A Detailed Model Atmosphere Analysis of Hot White Dwarfs from SDSS DR12 (2020, methodology): “Using the extinction maps of Schlafly & Finkbeiner (2011) together with the Gaia distances, we dereddened the ugriz magnitudes following the approach outlined in Harris et al. (2006).”
AGaiaData Release 2 catalogue of white dwarfs and a comparison with SDSS (2018, methodology): “This parameterisation is slightly different to the one used in Harris et al. (2006), Tremblay et al. MNRAS 000, 000–000 (0000) (2011), and Genest-Beaulieu & Bergeron (2014), where interstellar absorption was assumed to be negligible within 100 pc and to vary linearly from zero to a maximum value…”
White dwarf mass distribution in the SDSS (2006, methodology): “…rmin is due to the bright magnitude limit, g=15, and z0 is the disk scale height which we assume to be 250 pc, as Liebert, Bergeron, & Holberg (2005) and Harris et al. (2006), even though our height distribution indicates z0 ≃ 310 pc. Vennes et al. (2005) show that both the white dwarf stars in…”
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD: A DETAILED MODEL ATMOSPHERE ANALYSIS OF NEARBY WHITE DWARFS (2012, methodology): “Our WDLF is also compared with that obtained by Harris et al. (2006) using the SDSS sample, and with that derived by Bergeron et al. (2011) using the DA and DB stars identified in the PG survey (see their Figure 24).”
SEGUE: A SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF 240,000 STARS WITH g = 14–20 (2009, methodology): “Recent SDSS studies of WDs (Kilic et al. 2006 and Harris et al. 2006) have demonstrated the usefulness of a reduced proper motion cut for selecting candidates from the photometric data, and a similar procedure is used to identify targets in the SEGUE imaging data.”
THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE DATA: PANCHROMATIC FAINT OBJECT COUNTS FOR 0.2–2 μm WAVELENGTH (2010, background): “The effective ERS UV stellar detection limit of AB'25 mag could trace a T=2×104K white dwarf with an absolute magnitude in the range Mbol'+15 to +10 mag (Harris et al. 2006) out to a distance of 1–10 kpc, respectively, assuming modest bolometric corrections.”