The ELM Survey. VIII. Final double WD binaries

DOI

We present the final sample of 98 detached double white dwarf (WD) binaries found in the Extremely Low Mass (ELM) Survey, a spectroscopic survey targeting <0.3M_{sun} He-core WDs completed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint. Over the course of the survey we observed ancillary low-mass WD candidates like GD 278, which we show is a P=0.19d double WD binary, as well as candidates that turn out to be field blue straggler/subdwarf A-type stars with luminosities too high to be WDs given their Gaia parallaxes. Here, we define a clean sample of ELM WDs that is complete within our target selection and magnitude range 15<g_0<20mag. The measurements are consistent with 100% of ELM WDs being 0.0089<P<1.5d double WD binaries, 35% of which belong to the Galactic halo. We infer that these are mostly He+CO WD binaries given the measurement constraints. The merger rate of the observed He+CO WD binaries exceeds the formation rate of stable mass-transfer AM CVn binaries by a factor of 25, and so the majority of He+CO WD binaries must experience unstable mass transfer and merge. The systems with the shortest periods, such as J0651+2844, are signature LISA verification binaries that can be studied with gravitational waves and light.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/889/49/table2 (Measured and derived parameters)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.18890049
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/889/49
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/889/49
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/889/49
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/889/49
Provenance
Creator Brown W.R.; Kilic M.; Kosakowski A.; Andrews J.J.; Heinke C.O.,Agueros M.A.; Camilo F.; Gianninas A.; Hermes J.J.; Kenyon S.J.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2021
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; Exoplanet Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy