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Article
Spitzer Observations of the Oldest White Dwarfs in the Solar Neighborhood
The Astrophysical Journal
  • Mukremin Kilic, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • Ted von Hippel, Siena College
  • et al.
Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Physical Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
5-10-2009
Abstract/Description

We present Spitzer 5-15 μm spectroscopy of one cool white dwarf and 3.6-8 μm photometry of 51 cool white dwarfs with T eff < 6000 K. The majority of our targets have accurate BVRIJHKphotometry and trigonometric parallax measurements available, which enables us to perform a detailed model atmosphere analysis using their optical, near- and mid-infrared photometry with state-of-the-art model atmospheres. We demonstrate that the optical and infrared spectral energy distributions of cool white dwarfs are well reproduced by our grid of models. Our best-fit models are consistent with the observations within 5% in all filters except the IRAC 8 μm band, which has the lowest signal-to-noise ratio photometry. Excluding the ultracool white dwarfs, none of the stars in our sample show significant mid-infrared flux deficits or excesses. The nondetection of mid-infrared excess flux around our ≈2-9 Gyr old targets constrain the fraction of cool white dwarfs with warm debris disks to 0.8+1.5 –0.8 %.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/2094
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc.
Additional Information

Dr. von Hippel was not affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the time this paper was published.

Citation Information
Mukremin Kilic, Ted von Hippel and et al.. "Spitzer Observations of the Oldest White Dwarfs in the Solar Neighborhood" The Astrophysical Journal Vol. 696 Iss. 2 (2009) p. 2094 - 2103
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ted-vonhippel/86/