White Dwarfs in Close Binaries in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer All-Sky Survey

S. Vennes and J.R. Thorstensen

In White Dwarfs, ed. D. Koester and K. Werner (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), Proceedings of the 9th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, 313-317, 1995

Abstract

We examine the orbital and physical properties of the EUVE sample of white dwarfs found in binary systems with short orbital periods (~1 d). These systems, consisting of a hot white dwarf and a main sequence star, are recent survivors of a common envelope phase responsible for dramatic momentum losses and orbital shrinkage. The white dwarfs in close binaries also constitute a surprisingly large fraction of the total sample of white dwarfs discovered in the EUVE all-sky survey. Most secondary stars are M-dwarfs, with an average mass of > 0.5 M_solar, and comparisons with some simulated samples of close binaries suggest that many more systems with very low mass secondary stars (< 0.3 M_solar) remain to be discovered.

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