TY - JOUR
T1 - The merger rate of binary white dwarfs in the galactic disk
AU - Badenes, Carles
AU - Maoz, Dan
N1 - Israel Science Foundation; IRG from European Union [276988]; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Japanese Monbukagakusho; Max Planck Society; Higher Education Funding Council for EnglandWe are indebted to Steve Bickerton for his contribution to DS/DT, and to Scot Kleinman for making his WD catalog available to us in advance of publication. We acknowledge useful discussions with Tim Beers, Steve Bickerton, Joke Claeys, Brian Metzger, Ehud Nakar, Gijs Nelemans, and Marten van Kerkwijk. We are grateful to the SWARMS team: Mukremin Kilic, Tom Matheson, Fergal Mullally, Roger Romani, and Susan Thompson. This work was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation and IRG grant number 276988 from the European Union. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, Uni
PY - 2012/4/10
Y1 - 2012/4/10
N2 - We use multi-epoch spectroscopy of ∼4000 white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to constrain the properties of the Galactic population of binary white dwarf systems and calculate their merger rate. With a Monte Carlo code, we model the distribution of ΔRVmax, the maximum radial velocity shift between exposures of the same star, as a function of the binary fraction within 0.05AU, f bin, and the power-law index in the separation distribution at the end of the common-envelope phase, α. Although there is some degeneracy between f bin and α, the 15 high-ΔRVmax systems that we find constrain the combination of these parameters, which determines a white dwarf merger rate per unit stellar mass of 1.4+3.4 -1.0 × 10-13yr -1 M -1 ⊙ (1σ limits). This is remarkably similar to the measured rate of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) per unit stellar mass in Milky-Way-like Sbc galaxies. The rate of super-Chandrasekhar mergers is only 1.0+1.6 -0.6 × 10 -14yr-1 M -1 ⊙. We conclude that there are not enough close binary white dwarf systems to reproduce the observed SN Ia rate in the "classic" double degenerate super-Chandrasekhar scenario. On the other hand, if sub-Chandrasekhar mergers can lead to SNe Ia, as has been recently suggested by some studies, they could make a major contribution to the overall SN Ia rate. Although unlikely, we cannot rule out contamination of our sample by M-dwarf binaries or non-Gaussian errors. These issues will be clarified in the near future by completing the follow-up of all 15 high-ΔRVmax systems.
AB - We use multi-epoch spectroscopy of ∼4000 white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to constrain the properties of the Galactic population of binary white dwarf systems and calculate their merger rate. With a Monte Carlo code, we model the distribution of ΔRVmax, the maximum radial velocity shift between exposures of the same star, as a function of the binary fraction within 0.05AU, f bin, and the power-law index in the separation distribution at the end of the common-envelope phase, α. Although there is some degeneracy between f bin and α, the 15 high-ΔRVmax systems that we find constrain the combination of these parameters, which determines a white dwarf merger rate per unit stellar mass of 1.4+3.4 -1.0 × 10-13yr -1 M -1 ⊙ (1σ limits). This is remarkably similar to the measured rate of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) per unit stellar mass in Milky-Way-like Sbc galaxies. The rate of super-Chandrasekhar mergers is only 1.0+1.6 -0.6 × 10 -14yr-1 M -1 ⊙. We conclude that there are not enough close binary white dwarf systems to reproduce the observed SN Ia rate in the "classic" double degenerate super-Chandrasekhar scenario. On the other hand, if sub-Chandrasekhar mergers can lead to SNe Ia, as has been recently suggested by some studies, they could make a major contribution to the overall SN Ia rate. Although unlikely, we cannot rule out contamination of our sample by M-dwarf binaries or non-Gaussian errors. These issues will be clarified in the near future by completing the follow-up of all 15 high-ΔRVmax systems.
KW - binaries: close
KW - supernovae: general
KW - white dwarfs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858986526&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/2041-8205/749/1/L11
DO - 10.1088/2041-8205/749/1/L11
M3 - مقالة
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 749
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L11
ER -