eprintid: 1477438
rev_number: 21
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/01/47/74/38
datestamp: 2016-07-04 13:17:06
lastmod: 2021-09-20 22:22:22
status_changed: 2016-07-04 13:17:06
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Hermes, JJ
creators_name: Gaensicke, BT
creators_name: Koester, D
creators_name: Bours, MCP
creators_name: Townsley, DM
creators_name: Farihi, J
creators_name: Marsh, TR
creators_name: Littlefair, S
creators_name: Dhillon, VS
creators_name: Gianninas, A
creators_name: Breedt, E
creators_name: Raddi, R
title: Heavy metals in a light white dwarf: abundances of the metal-rich, extremely low-mass GALEX J1717+6757
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C06
divisions: F60
keywords: stars: abundances, binaries: close, binaries: eclipsing, stars: individual: (GALEX J171708.5+675712), white dwarfs, Galaxy: stellar content
note: This article has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
abstract: Using the Hubble Space Telescope, we detail the first abundance analysis enabled by far-ultraviolet spectroscopy of a low-mass (≃0.19 M⊙) white dwarf (WD), GALEX J1717+6757, which is in a 5.9-h binary with a fainter, more-massive companion. We see absorption from nine metals, including roughly solar abundances of Ca, Fe, Ti, and P. We detect a significantly sub-solar abundance of C, and put upper limits on N and O that are also markedly sub-solar. Updated diffusion calculations indicate that all metals should settle out of the atmosphere of this 14 900 K, log g = 5.67 WD in the absence of radiative forces in less than 20 yr, orders of magnitude faster than the cooling age of hundreds of Myr. We demonstrate that ongoing accretion of rocky material that is often the cause of atmospheric metals in isolated, more massive WDs is unlikely to explain the observed abundances in GALEX J1717+6757. Using new radiative levitation calculations, we determine that radiative forces can counteract diffusion and support many but not all of the elements present in the atmosphere of this WD; radiative levitation cannot, on its own, explain all of the observed abundance patterns, and additional mechanisms such as rotational mixing may be required. Finally, we detect both primary and secondary eclipses using ULTRACAM high-speed photometry, which we use to constrain the low-mass WD radius and rotation rate as well as update the ephemeris from the discovery observations of this WD+WD binary.
date: 2014-10-21
date_type: published
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1518
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1005998
doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu1518
lyricists_name: Farihi, Jay
lyricists_id: JFARI07
actors_name: Farihi, Jay
actors_id: JFARI07
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume: 444
number: 2
pagerange: 1674-1682
issn: 0035-8711
citation:        Hermes, JJ;    Gaensicke, BT;    Koester, D;    Bours, MCP;    Townsley, DM;    Farihi, J;    Marsh, TR;                     ... Raddi, R; + view all <#>        Hermes, JJ;  Gaensicke, BT;  Koester, D;  Bours, MCP;  Townsley, DM;  Farihi, J;  Marsh, TR;  Littlefair, S;  Dhillon, VS;  Gianninas, A;  Breedt, E;  Raddi, R;   - view fewer <#>    (2014)    Heavy metals in a light white dwarf: abundances of the metal-rich, extremely low-mass GALEX J1717+6757.                   Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 444  (2)   pp. 1674-1682.    10.1093/mnras/stu1518 <https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstu1518>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1477438/1/Farihi_MNRAS-2014-Hermes-1674-82.pdf