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 %.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/2094
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Kilic, M., von Hippel, T., & al., e. (2009). Spitzer Observations of the Oldest White Dwarfs in the Solar Neighborhood. The Astrophysical Journal, 696(2). https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/2094
Additional Information
Dr. von Hippel was not affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the time this paper was published.