A fast spinning magnetic white dwarf in the double degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar system NLTT 12758

Adela Kawka; Gordon P. Briggs; Stéphane Vennes; Lilia Ferrario; Ernst Paunzen; Dayal T. Wickramasinghe

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw3149

A fast spinning magnetic white dwarf in the double degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar system NLTT 12758

Adela Kawka^*, Gordon P. Briggs, Stéphane Vennes, Lilia Ferrario, Ernst Paunzen, Dayal T. Wickramasinghe

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present an analysis of the close double degenerate NLTT 12758, which is comprised of a magnetic white dwarf with a field of about 3.1 MG and an apparently non-magnetic white dwarf. We measured an orbital period of 1.154 d and found that the magnetic white dwarf is spinning around its axis with a period of 23 min. An analysis of the atmospheric parameters has revealed that the cooling ages of the two white dwarfs are comparable, suggesting that they formed within a short period of time from each other. Our modelling indicates that the non-magnetic white dwarf is more massive (M = 0.83M_⊙) than its magnetic companion (M = 0.69M_⊙) and that the total mass of the system is higher than the Chandrasekhar mass. Although the stars will not come into contact over a Hubble time, when they do come into contact, dynamically unstable mass transfer will take place leading to either an accretion induced collapse into a rapidly spinning neutron star or a Type Ia supernova.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1127-1139
Number of pages	13
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	466
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw3149
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2017

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title = "A fast spinning magnetic white dwarf in the double degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar system NLTT 12758",

abstract = "We present an analysis of the close double degenerate NLTT 12758, which is comprised of a magnetic white dwarf with a field of about 3.1 MG and an apparently non-magnetic white dwarf. We measured an orbital period of 1.154 d and found that the magnetic white dwarf is spinning around its axis with a period of 23 min. An analysis of the atmospheric parameters has revealed that the cooling ages of the two white dwarfs are comparable, suggesting that they formed within a short period of time from each other. Our modelling indicates that the non-magnetic white dwarf is more massive (M = 0.83M⊙) than its magnetic companion (M = 0.69M⊙) and that the total mass of the system is higher than the Chandrasekhar mass. Although the stars will not come into contact over a Hubble time, when they do come into contact, dynamically unstable mass transfer will take place leading to either an accretion induced collapse into a rapidly spinning neutron star or a Type Ia supernova.",

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author = "Adela Kawka and Briggs, {Gordon P.} and St{\'e}phane Vennes and Lilia Ferrario and Ernst Paunzen and Wickramasinghe, {Dayal T.}",

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T1 - A fast spinning magnetic white dwarf in the double degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar system NLTT 12758

AU - Kawka, Adela

AU - Briggs, Gordon P.

AU - Vennes, Stéphane

AU - Ferrario, Lilia

AU - Paunzen, Ernst

AU - Wickramasinghe, Dayal T.

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - We present an analysis of the close double degenerate NLTT 12758, which is comprised of a magnetic white dwarf with a field of about 3.1 MG and an apparently non-magnetic white dwarf. We measured an orbital period of 1.154 d and found that the magnetic white dwarf is spinning around its axis with a period of 23 min. An analysis of the atmospheric parameters has revealed that the cooling ages of the two white dwarfs are comparable, suggesting that they formed within a short period of time from each other. Our modelling indicates that the non-magnetic white dwarf is more massive (M = 0.83M⊙) than its magnetic companion (M = 0.69M⊙) and that the total mass of the system is higher than the Chandrasekhar mass. Although the stars will not come into contact over a Hubble time, when they do come into contact, dynamically unstable mass transfer will take place leading to either an accretion induced collapse into a rapidly spinning neutron star or a Type Ia supernova.

AB - We present an analysis of the close double degenerate NLTT 12758, which is comprised of a magnetic white dwarf with a field of about 3.1 MG and an apparently non-magnetic white dwarf. We measured an orbital period of 1.154 d and found that the magnetic white dwarf is spinning around its axis with a period of 23 min. An analysis of the atmospheric parameters has revealed that the cooling ages of the two white dwarfs are comparable, suggesting that they formed within a short period of time from each other. Our modelling indicates that the non-magnetic white dwarf is more massive (M = 0.83M⊙) than its magnetic companion (M = 0.69M⊙) and that the total mass of the system is higher than the Chandrasekhar mass. Although the stars will not come into contact over a Hubble time, when they do come into contact, dynamically unstable mass transfer will take place leading to either an accretion induced collapse into a rapidly spinning neutron star or a Type Ia supernova.

KW - Binaries: close

KW - Stars: individual: NLTT 12758

KW - Stars: magnetic field

KW - White dwarfs

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DO - 10.1093/mnras/stw3149

M3 - Article

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 466

SP - 1127

EP - 1139

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

IS - 1

ER -

A fast spinning magnetic white dwarf in the double degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar system NLTT 12758

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