J/ApJ/934/148 WD ages from Gaia EDR3 wide double WD binaries (Heintz+, 2022)
Testing white dwarf age estimates using wide double white dwarf binaries from
Gaia EDR3.
Heintz T.M., Hermes J.J., El-Badry K., Walsh C., van Saders J.L.,
Fields C.E., Koester D.
<Astrophys. J., 934, 148 (2022)>
=2022ApJ...934..148H 2022ApJ...934..148H
ADC_Keywords: Stars, double and multiple; Stars, white dwarf; Stars, ages;
Parallaxes, trigonometric; Proper motions; Photometry, ugriz;
Stars, masses; Effective temperatures; Surveys
Keywords: White dwarf stars ; Wide binary stars ; Stellar ages
Abstract:
White dwarf (WD) stars evolve simply and predictably, making them
reliable age indicators. However, self-consistent validation of the
methods for determining WD total ages has yet to be widely performed.
This work uses 1565 wide (>100au) WD+WD binaries and 24 new triples
containing at least two WDs to test the accuracy and validity of WD
total age determinations. For these 1589 wide double WD binaries and
triples, we derive the total age of each WD using photometric data
from all-sky surveys, in conjunction with Gaia parallaxes and current
hydrogen atmosphere WD models. Ignoring the initial-to-final mass
relation and considering only WD cooling ages, we find that roughly
21%-36% of the more massive WDs in a system have a shorter cooling
age. Since more massive WDs should be born as more massive
main-sequence stars, we interpret this unphysical disagreement as
evidence of prior mergers or the presence of an unresolved companion,
suggesting that roughly 21%-36% of wide WD+WD binaries were once
triples. Among the 423 wide WD+WD pairs that pass high-fidelity cuts,
we find that 25% total age uncertainties are generally appropriate for
WDs with masses >0.63M☉ and temperatures <12000K and provide
suggested inflation factors for age uncertainties for higher-mass WDs.
Overall, WDs return reliable stellar ages, but we detail cases where
the total ages are least reliable, especially for WDs <0.63M☉.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
tablea1.dat 1281 1591 The full catalog of wide double WD pairs; from
erratum published in 2023ApJ, 952, 92
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See also:
B/wd : Spectroscopically identified white dwarfs (McCook+, 2014)
III/210 : Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs (McCook+, 1999)
II/246 : 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)
VII/241 : The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (Croom+ 2004)
III/235 : Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs (McCook+, 2008)
II/349 : The Pan-STARRS release 1 (PS1) Survey - DR1 (Chambers+, 2016)
II/358 : SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey. DR1.1 (Wolf+, 2018)
I/350 : Gaia EDR3 (Gaia Collaboration, 2020)
V/154 : Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS), Release 16 (DR16) (Ahumada+, 2020)
II/379 : SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey. DR4 (Onken+, 2024)
J/ApJS/156/47 : DA WDs from the Palomar Green Survey (Liebert+, 2005)
J/AJ/132/676 : SDSS hot DB white dwarfs (Eisenstein+, 2006)
J/A+A/505/441 : UVES/VLT spectra of white dwarfs (Koester+, 2009)
J/ApJ/704/531 : The coevality of young binary systems (Kraus+, 2009)
J/ApJ/743/138 : Spectroscopic survey of bright WDs (Gianninas+, 2011)
J/ApJ/730/128 : Spectroscopy of DA WD from the SDSS-DR4 (Tremblay+, 2011)
J/AJ/144/93 : Close white dwarf + M dwarf binaries (WD+dM) (Morgan+, 2012)
J/ApJS/204/5 : SDSS DR7 white dwarf catalog (Kleinman+, 2013)
J/AJ/145/136 : Astrometry & phot. of nearby white dwarfs (Limoges+, 2013)
J/ApJ/815/63 : SDSS wide double white dwarfs spectroscopy (Andrews+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/454/2787 : LAMOST DR2 white dwarfs (Guo+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/446/4078 : New white dwarf stars in SDSS DR10 (Kepler+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/455/3413 : New WD and subdwarf stars in SDSS DR12 (Kepler+, 2016)
J/MNRAS/480/4884 : Gaia wide binaries (El-Badry+, 2018)
J/A+A/616/A10 : Open clusters GaiaDR2 HR diagrams (Gaia Collaboration, 2018)
J/ApJ/886/100 : High-mass white dwarfs in Gaia DR2 (Cheng+, 2019)
J/ApJ/870/9 : Ages & masses for GPS1 WD-MS systems (Fouesneau+, 2019)
J/MNRAS/482/4570 : Gaia DR2 white dwarf candidates (Gentile Fusillo+, 2019)
J/MNRAS/486/2169 : White dwarf and subdwarf stars in SDSS DR14 (Kepler+, 2019)
J/MNRAS/482/965 : Age of the Gal. stellar halo from Gaia WDs (Kilic+, 2019)
J/ApJ/901/93 : Model atm. analysis of hot WDs from SDSSDR12 (Bedard+, 2020)
J/ApJ/898/84 : Sp. follow-up of 100pc WDs in SDSS & Gaia (Kilic+, 2020)
J/ApJS/246/4 : Cat. of ultrawide binary stars from Gaia DR2 (Tian+, 2020)
J/MNRAS/497/130 : Gaia white dwarfs within 40pc. I (Tremblay+, 2020)
J/ApJ/891/171 : COCONUTS. I. Sp. of a WD & T4 comoving syst. (Zhang+, 2020)
J/MNRAS/508/3877 : Catalogue of white dwarfs in Gaia EDR3 (Gentile+, 2021)
J/AJ/161/277 : Sample of 45 HαEW outliers (Kiman+, 2021)
J/ApJS/253/58 : Ages of field stars from WD comp. in Gaia (Qiu+, 2021)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: tablea1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 36 A36 --- ID System name (1)
38- 56 I19 --- GaiaPrim Primary Gaia EDR3 identifier
58- 68 F11.7 deg RAdeg Primary Right Ascension (ICRS) at Ep=2016
70- 80 F11.7 deg DEdeg Primary Declination (ICRS) at Ep=2016
82- 89 F8.3 mas/yr pmRA [-621/517] Primary Proper motion along RA
91- 95 F5.3 mas/yr e_pmRA Uncertainty in pmRA
97- 105 F9.3 mas/yr pmDE [-1828/264] Primary proper motion along
DE
107- 111 F5.3 mas/yr e_pmDE Uncertainty in pmDE
113- 118 F6.3 mas plx [1.7/67] Primary parallax
120- 124 F5.3 mas e_plx [0.018/2] Uncertainty in plx
126- 132 F7.4 mag Gmag [13.9/21] Primary mean Gaia EDR3 G-band
magnitude
134- 141 F8.2 ct/s GFlux Primary mean Gaia EDR3 G-band flux; e-/s
143- 147 F5.2 ct/s e_GFlux Uncertainty in GFlux
149- 155 F7.4 mag Bpmag Primary mean Gaia EDR3 GBp-band
magnitude
157- 164 F8.2 ct/s BpFlux Primary mean Gaia EDR3 GBP-band flux
166- 173 F8.2 ct/s e_BpFlux Uncertainty in BpFlux
175- 181 F7.4 mag Rpmag Primary mean Gaia EDR3 GRp-band
magnitude
183- 190 F8.2 ct/s RpFlux Primary mean Gaia EDR3 GRP-band flux
192- 198 F7.2 ct/s e_RpFlux Uncertainty in RpFlux
200- 206 F7.4 mag uSDSSmag [13.7/30.3]? Primary SDSS u-band AB
magnitude
208- 214 F7.4 mag gSDSSmag ? Primary SDSS g-band AB magnitude
216- 222 F7.4 mag rSDSSmag ? Primary SDSS r-band AB magnitude
224- 230 F7.4 mag iSDSSmag ? Primary SDSS i-band AB magnitude
232- 238 F7.4 mag zSDSSmag ? Primary SDSS z-band AB magnitude
240- 245 F6.4 mag e_uSDSSmag [0.004/2]? Uncertainty in uSDSSmag
247- 252 F6.4 mag e_gSDSSmag ? Uncertainty in gSDSSmag
254- 259 F6.4 mag e_rSDSSmag ? Uncertainty in rSDSSmag
261- 266 F6.4 mag e_iSDSSmag ? Uncertainty in iSDSSmag
268- 273 F6.4 mag e_zSDSSmag ? Uncertainty in zSDSSmag
275- 281 F7.4 mag uSMSSmag ? Primary SkyMapper u-band AB magnitude
283- 289 F7.4 mag vSMSSmag ? Primary SkyMapper v-band AB magnitude
291- 297 F7.4 mag gSMSSmag ? Primary SkyMapper g-band AB magnitude
299- 305 F7.4 mag rSMSSmag [13.5/20.8]? Primary SkyMapper r-band AB
magnitude
307- 313 F7.4 mag iSMSSmag ? Primary SkyMapper i-band AB magnitude
315- 321 F7.4 mag zSMSSmag ? Primary SkyMapper z-band AB magnitude
323- 328 F6.4 mag e_uSMSSmag ? Uncertainty in uSMSSmag
330- 335 F6.4 mag e_vSMSSmag ? Uncertainty in vSMSSmag
337- 342 F6.4 mag e_gSMSSmag ? Uncertainty in gSMSSmag
344- 349 F6.4 mag e_rSMSSmag [0.004/0.2]? Uncertainty in rSMSSmag
351- 356 F6.4 mag e_iSMSSmag ? Uncertainty in iSMSSmag
358- 363 F6.4 mag e_zSMSSmag ? Uncertainty in zSMSSmag
365- 372 F8.5 mag gPS1mag [13.5/22]? Primary PanSTARRS g-band AB
magnitude
374- 381 F8.5 mag rPS1mag ? Primary PanSTARRS r-band AB magnitude
383- 390 F8.5 mag iPS1mag ? Primary PanSTARRS i-band AB magnitude
392- 399 F8.5 mag zPS1mag ? Primary PanSTARRS z-band AB magnitude
401- 408 F8.5 mag yPS1mag ? Primary PanSTARRS y-band AB magnitude
410- 416 F7.5 mag e_gPS1mag [0/0.2]? Uncertainty in gPS1mag
418- 424 F7.5 mag e_rPS1mag ? Uncertainty in rPS1mag
426- 432 F7.5 mag e_iPS1mag ? Uncertainty in iPS1mag
434- 440 F7.5 mag e_zPS1mag ? Uncertainty in zPS1mag
442- 448 F7.5 mag e_yPS1mag ? Uncertainty in yPS1mag
450- 455 F6.3 mag Jmag [13.7/17]? Primary 2MASS J-band Vega
magnitude
457- 462 F6.3 mag Hmag [13.7/18]? Primary 2MASS H-band Vega
magnitude
464- 469 F6.3 mag Ksmag ? Primary 2MASS Ks-band Vega magnitude
471- 475 F5.3 mag e_Jmag [0.028/0.2]? Uncertainty in Jmag
477- 481 F5.3 mag e_Hmag [0/0.3]? Uncertainty in Hmag
483- 487 F5.3 mag e_Ksmag ? Uncertainty in Ksmag
489- 493 F5.3 [cm/s2] logg [6.9/9.3] Primary log surface gravity (3)
495- 499 F5.3 [cm/s2] E_logg Upper uncertainty in logg
501- 505 F5.3 [cm/s2] e_logg Lower uncertainty in logg
507- 511 I5 K Teff [3002/38786] Primary effective
temperature (3)
513- 516 I4 K E_Teff Upper uncertainty in Teff
518- 522 I5 K e_Teff Lower uncertainty in Teff
524- 528 F5.3 Msun Mass [0.2/1.3] Primary mass (3)
530- 534 F5.3 Msun E_Mass [0/0.7] Upper uncertainty in Mass
536- 540 F5.3 Msun e_Mass Lower uncertainty in Mass
542- 548 F7.4 Gyr CAge [0.003/13]? Primary cooling age (3)
550- 555 F6.4 Gyr E_CAge [0.0003/3.3]? Upper uncertainty in CAge
557- 562 F6.4 Gyr e_CAge ? Lower uncertainty in CAge
564- 569 F6.3 Msun iM [-2.4/8.6] Primary initial ZAMS mass
571- 575 F5.3 Msun E_iM [0/7] Upper uncertainty in iM
577- 581 F5.3 Msun e_iM Lower uncertainty in iM
583- 591 F9.4 Gyr TAge [0.09/3215]? Primary total age
593- 601 F9.4 Gyr E_TAge [0.003/3130]? Upper uncertainty in TAge
603- 611 F9.4 Gyr e_TAge ? Lower uncertainty in TAge
613- 618 A6 --- SpType Primary spectral type
620- 638 A19 --- r_SpType Bibcode reference for SpType (2)
642- 660 I19 --- GaiaSec Secondary Gaia EDR3 identifier
662- 672 F11.7 deg RASdeg Secondary Right Ascension (ICRS)
at Ep=2016
674- 684 F11.7 deg DESdeg Secondary Declination (ICRS) at Ep=2016
686- 693 F8.3 mas/yr pmSRA [-622/517] Secondary proper motion along
RA
695- 699 F5.3 mas/yr e_pmSRA Uncertainty in pmSRA
701- 709 F9.3 mas/yr pmSDE [-1826/262] Secondary proper motion
along DE
711- 715 F5.3 mas/yr e_pmSDE Uncertainty in pmSDE
717- 722 F6.3 mas plxS [1.4/67] Secondary parallax
724- 728 F5.3 mas e_plxS [0.015/2] Uncertainty in plxS
730- 736 F7.4 mag GmagS [12.8/21] Secondary mean Gaia EDR3
G-band magnitude
738- 746 F9.2 ct/s GFluxS Secondary mean Gaia EDR3 G-band flux;
e-/s
748- 752 F5.2 ct/s e_GFluxS Uncertainty in GFluxS
754- 760 F7.4 mag BpmagS Secondary mean Gaia EDR3 GBp-band
magnitude
762- 770 F9.2 ct/s BpFluxS Secondary mean Gaia EDR3 GBP-band flux
772- 777 F6.2 ct/s e_BpFluxS Uncertainty in BpFluxS
779- 785 F7.4 mag RpmagS Secondary mean Gaia EDR3 GRp-band
magnitude
787- 794 F8.2 ct/s RpFluxS Secondary mean Gaia EDR3 GRP-band flux
796- 801 F6.2 ct/s e_RpFluxS Uncertainty in RpFluxS
803- 809 F7.4 mag uSDSSmagS [13.2/26.2]? Secondary SDSS u-band AB
magnitude
811- 817 F7.4 mag gSDSSmagS [14.3/25.6]? Secondary SDSS g-band AB
magnitude
819- 825 F7.4 mag rSDSSmagS ? Secondary SDSS r-band AB magnitude
827- 833 F7.4 mag iSDSSmagS ? Secondary SDSS i-band AB magnitude
835- 841 F7.4 mag zSDSSmagS [13.6/23.6]? Secondary SDSS z-band AB
magnitude
843- 848 F6.4 mag e_uSDSSmagS [0.003/4]? Uncertainty in uSDSSmagS
850- 855 F6.4 mag e_gSDSSmagS [0.002/2]? Uncertainty in gSDSSmagS
857- 862 F6.4 mag e_rSDSSmagS ? Uncertainty in rSDSSmagS
864- 869 F6.4 mag e_iSDSSmagS ? Uncertainty in iSDSSmagS
871- 876 F6.4 mag e_zSDSSmagS [0.004/2]? Uncertainty in zSDSSmagS
878- 884 F7.4 mag uSMSSmagS [12.8/19.1]? Secondary SkyMapper u-band
AB magnitude
886- 892 F7.4 mag vSMSSmagS ? Secondary SkyMapper v-band AB magnitude
894- 900 F7.4 mag gSMSSmagS [13/21.1]? Secondary SkyMapper g-band AB
magnitude
902- 908 F7.4 mag rSMSSmagS ? Secondary SkyMapper r-band AB magnitude
910- 916 F7.4 mag iSMSSmagS ? Secondary SkyMapper i-band AB magnitude
918- 924 F7.4 mag zSMSSmagS [14/19.7]? Secondary SkyMapper z-band AB
magnitude
926- 931 F6.4 mag e_uSMSSmagS [0.004/0.2]? Uncertainty in uSMSSmagS
933- 938 F6.4 mag e_vSMSSmagS ? Uncertainty in vSMSSmagS
940- 945 F6.4 mag e_gSMSSmagS [0.005/0.2]? Uncertainty in gSMSSmagS
947- 952 F6.4 mag e_rSMSSmagS ? Uncertainty in rSMSSmagS
954- 959 F6.4 mag e_iSMSSmagS ? Uncertainty in iSMSSmagS
961- 966 F6.4 mag e_zSMSSmagS [0.004/0.2]? Uncertainty in zSMSSmagS
968- 975 F8.5 mag gPS1magS [12.8/22.2]? Secondary PanSTARRS g-band
AB magnitude
977- 984 F8.5 mag rPS1magS ? Secondary PanSTARRS r-band AB magnitude
986- 993 F8.5 mag iPS1magS ? Secondary PanSTARRS i-band AB magnitude
995- 1002 F8.5 mag zPS1magS ? Secondary PanSTARRS z-band AB magnitude
1004- 1011 F8.5 mag yPS1magS [13.7/20.6]? Secondary PanSTARRS y-band
AB magnitude
1013- 1019 F7.5 mag e_gPS1magS [0/0.3]? Uncertainty in gPS1magS
1021- 1027 F7.5 mag e_rPS1magS ? Uncertainty in rPS1magS
1029- 1035 F7.5 mag e_iPS1magS ? Uncertainty in iPS1magS
1037- 1043 F7.5 mag e_zPS1magS ? Uncertainty in zPS1magS
1045- 1051 F7.5 mag e_yPS1magS [0.0002/0.5]? Uncertainty in yPS1magS
1053- 1058 F6.3 mag JmagS [13/17]? Secondary 2MASS J-band Vega
magnitude
1060- 1065 F6.3 mag HmagS [13/17.7]? Secondary 2MASS H-band Vega
magnitude
1067- 1072 F6.3 mag KsmagS ? Secondary 2MASS Ks-band Vega
magnitude
1074- 1078 F5.3 mag e_JmagS [0/0.2]? Uncertainty in JmagS
1080- 1084 F5.3 mag e_HmagS [0/0.4]? Uncertainty in HmagS
1086- 1090 F5.3 mag e_KsmagS ? Uncertainty in KsmagS
1092- 1096 F5.3 [cm/s2] loggS [6.8/9]? Secondary log surface gravity
(3)
1098- 1102 F5.3 [cm/s2] E_loggS ? Upper uncertainty in loggS
1104- 1108 F5.3 [cm/s2] e_loggS ? Lower uncertainty in loggS
1110- 1114 I5 K TeffS [3004/39377]? Secondary effective
temperature (3)
1116- 1119 I4 K E_TeffS ? Upper uncertainty in TeffS
1121- 1125 I5 K e_TeffS ? Lower uncertainty in TeffS
1127- 1131 F5.3 Msun MassS [0.2/1.2]? Secondary mass (3)
1133- 1137 F5.3 Msun E_MassS [0/0.5]? Upper uncertainty in MassS
1139- 1143 F5.3 Msun e_MassS [0/0.6]? Lower uncertainty in MassS
1145- 1151 F7.4 Gyr CAgeS [0.0003/12.7]? Secondary cooling age (3)
1153- 1158 F6.4 Gyr E_CAgeS [0/2.5]? Upper uncertainty in CAgeS
1160- 1165 F6.4 Gyr e_CAgeS [0/3]? Lower uncertainty in CAgeS
1167- 1172 F6.3 Msun iMS [-2.4/6.8]? Secondary initial ZAMS mass
1174- 1178 F5.3 Msun E_iMS [0/4.7]? Upper uncertainty in iMS
1180- 1184 F5.3 Msun e_iMS [0/4.6]? Lower uncertainty in iMS
1186- 1194 F9.4 Gyr TAgeS [0.2/3231]? Secondary total age
1196- 1204 F9.4 Gyr E_TAgeS ? Upper uncertainty in TAgeS
1206- 1214 F9.4 Gyr e_TAgeS ? Lower uncertainty in TAgeS
1216- 1222 A7 --- SpTypeS Secondary spectral type
1224- 1242 A19 --- r_SpTypeS Bibcode reference for SpTypeS (2)
1244- 1257 F14.7 AU Sep [29.3/253900] Projected on-sky pair
separation
1259- 1264 F6.3 mas plxW [1.6/66.5] Weighted mean of the system
parallax
1266- 1270 F5.3 mas e_plxW [0.01/1.4] Uncertainty in plxW
1272- 1281 A10 --- Chance Chance alignment variable (values
between 8.4e-71 and 6.6e+06) if any (4)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Determined by the source identifier of the brightest component.
The final 26 rows contain the wide double WD pairs from the triples
found in this paper. These have blanks in the Chance column and
"WDWDMS" or "WDWDWD" instead of "WDWD" in front of the Gaia EDR3
primary identifier (see Table A2).
Note (2): The collected spectral types are from "this work" or from:
Sion et al. (1991AJ....101.1476S 1991AJ....101.1476S),
Finley & Koester (1997ApJ...489L..79F 1997ApJ...489L..79F),
McCook & Sion (1999ApJS..121....1M 1999ApJS..121....1M ; Cat. B/wd),
Croom et al. (2004MNRAS.349.1397C 2004MNRAS.349.1397C ; Cat. VII/241),
Koester et al. (2009, J/A+A/505/441),
Kulebi et al. (2010A&A...524A..36K 2010A&A...524A..36K),
Tremblay et al. (2011, J/ApJ/730/128),
Bergeron et al. (2011ApJ...737...28B 2011ApJ...737...28B),
Gianninas et al. (2011, J/ApJ/743/138),
Dobbie et al. (2012MNRAS.421..202D 2012MNRAS.421..202D),
Kleinman et al. (2013, J/ApJS/204/5),
Limoges et al. (2013, J/AJ/145/136),
Baxter et al. (2014MNRAS.440.3184B 2014MNRAS.440.3184B),
Andrews et al. (2015, J/ApJ/815/63),
Kepler et al. (2015, J/MNRAS/446/4078),
Ferrario et al. (2015SSRv..191..111F 2015SSRv..191..111F),
Guo et al. (2015, J/MNRAS/454/2787),
Kepler et al. (2016, J/MNRAS/455/3413),
Gentile Fusillo et al. (2019, J/MNRAS/482/4570),
Kilic et al. (2020, J/ApJ/898/84),
Tremblay et al. (2020, J/MNRAS/497/130).
Note (3): for a DA model with a thick H layer.
Note (4): From El-Badry et al. (2021MNRAS.506.2269E 2021MNRAS.506.2269E).
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 29-Jul-2024