The impact of mergers in the white dwarf mass distribution

Silvia Catalan, J. Isern, E. Garcia-Berro, M. Hernanz

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    The study of the white dwarf mass distribution gives a unique opportunity to obtain information about the amount of mass lost during stellar evolution. Spectroscopic observations of a large number of white dwarfs has allowed to derive the observational white dwarf mass distribution with accuracy. This distribution shows a central peak around the value 0.6M(circle dot), but presents also a small peak at larger masses. Our purpose in this work is to evaluate the influence of the mergers of white dwarfs in the mass distribution, since it has been proved that the merging of two white dwarfs leads to a more massive white dwarf, and this mechanism might be one of the responsibles of the excess of massive white dwarfs in the white dwarf mass distribution.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication17th European White Dwarf Workshop
    PublisherAmerican Institute of Physics (AIP)
    Pages48-51
    Number of pages3
    Volume1273
    Edition1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Publication series

    NameAIP Conference Proceedings
    PublisherAmerican Institute of Physics

    Keywords

    • stars: low-mass
    • stars: white dwarfs

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