Evidence of spectral evolution on the white dwarf sample from the Gaia mission

Since the Gaia data release 2, several works have been published describing a bifurcation in the observed white dwarf colour−magnitude diagram for GBP−GRP>0. Some possible explanations in the literature include the existence of a double population with different initial mass functions or two dist...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Ourique, Gustavo, Kepler, Souza Oliveira, Romero, Alejandra Daniela, Klippel, Theylor Schumacher, Koester, Detlev
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/211713
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/211713
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Anãs brancas
Populacoes estelares
Evolucao galatica
Parallax: white dwarfs
Descrição
Resumo:Since the Gaia data release 2, several works have been published describing a bifurcation in the observed white dwarf colour−magnitude diagram for GBP−GRP>0. Some possible explanations in the literature include the existence of a double population with different initial mass functions or two distinct populations, one formed by hydrogen-envelope and one formed by helium-envelope white dwarfs. We propose instead spectral evolution to explain the bifurcation. From a population synthesis approach, we find that spectral evolution occurs for effective temperatures below ≃11000K and masses mainly between 0.64M⊙ and 0.74M⊙, which correspond to around 16 per cent of all DA white dwarfs. We also find that the Gaia white dwarf colour–magnitude diagram indicates a star formation history that decreases abruptly for objects younger than 1.4Gyr and a top-heavy initial mass function for the white dwarf progenitors.