New sample of Galactic white dwarfs

DOI

In this study, we demonstrate the efficacy of the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) in identifying and characterizing white dwarfs (WDs) within the Milky Way Galaxy. Leveraging the UVIT point source catalogue towards SMC and crossmatching with Gaia DR3 data, we identified 43 single WDs (37 new detections), 13 new WD+main sequence (MS) candidates and 161 UV bright MS stars by analysing their Spectral Energy Distributions (SED). Using the WD evolutionary models, we determine the masses, effective temperatures, and cooling ages of these identified WDs. Masses of these WDs range from 0.2 to 1.3M_{sun}_ and effective temperatures (Teff) between 10000K to 15000K, with cooling ages spanning 0.1 to 2Gyr. Notably, we detect hotter WDs compared to literature values, which is attributed to the sensitivity of UVIT. Furthermore, we report the detection of 20 new extremely low-mass (ELM) candidates from our analysis. Future spectroscopic studies of the ELM candidates will help us understand the formation scenarios of these exotic objects. Despite limitations in Gaia DR3 distance measurements for optically faint WDs, we provide a crude estimate of the WD space density within 1kpc as 1.3x10^-3^pc^-3^, which is higher than previous estimates in the literature. Our results underscore the instrumental capabilities of UVIT and anticipate the forthcoming UV missions like INSIST for systematic WD discovery. Our methodology sets a precedent for future analyses in other UVIT fields to find more WDs and perform spectroscopic studies to verify their candidacy.

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/690/A68/table1 (List of the 43 single white dwarfs identified in the present study)

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/690/A68/table2 (List of the 13 WD+MS candidates identified from the present study)

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/690/A68/tablea1 (List of 273 sources with their UVIT magnitudes used in this study with literature (SIMBAD) match)

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/690/A68/tableb1 (List of the 161 UV bright MS stars identified from the present study)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.36900068
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/690/A68
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/690/A68
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/690/A68
Provenance
Creator Sidharth A.V.; Shridharan B.; Mathew B.; Devaraj A.; Cysil T.B.,Stalin C.S.; Arun R.; Bhattacharyya S.; Kartha S.S.; Robin T.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2024
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy