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Low mass companions to white dwarfs
Author(s) -
Farihi J.,
Zuckerman B.,
Becklin E. E.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200510434
Subject(s) - white dwarf , brown dwarf , physics , astrophysics , stellar classification , low mass , blue dwarf , black dwarf , binary number , astronomy , stars , mathematics , arithmetic
This paper summarizes the results of over 17 years of work searching for low mass stellar and substellar companions to more than 370 nearby white dwarfs. Roughly 60 low mass, unevolved companions were found and studied all together, with over 20 discovered in the last few years, including the first unambiguous brown dwarf companion to a white dwarf, GD 1400B. The resulting spectral type distributions for companions to white dwarfs and nearby cool field dwarfs are compared, and the implications for binary star formation are discussed. A brief analysis of GD 1400B, including new data, is also presented. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)