Bibcode
DOI
Dahn, Conard C.; Bergeron, P.; Liebert, James; Harris, Hugh C.; Canzian, Blaise; Leggett, S. K.; Boudreault, S.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 605, Issue 1, pp. 400-404.
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4
2004
Journal
Citations
31
Refereed citations
24
Description
By two different methods, we show that LHS 4033 is an extremely massive
white dwarf near its likely upper mass limit for destruction by unstable
electron captures. From the accurate trigonometric parallax reported
herein, the effective temperature (Teff=10,900 K) and the
stellar radius (R=0.00368 Rsolar) are directly determined
from the broadband spectral energy distribution-the parallax method. The
effective temperature and surface gravity are also estimated
independently from the simultaneous fitting of the observed Balmer line
profiles with those predicted from pure-hydrogen model atmospheres-the
spectroscopic method (Teff=10,760 K, logg=9.46). The mass of
LHS 4033 is then inferred from theoretical mass-radius relations
appropriate for white dwarfs. The parallax method yields a mass estimate
of 1.310-1.330 Msolar for interior compositions ranging from
pure magnesium to pure carbon, respectively, while the spectroscopic
method yields an estimate of 1.318-1.335 Msolar for the same
core compositions. This star is the most massive white dwarf for which a
robust comparison of the two techniques has been made.