Bibcode
Rappaport, S.; Nelson, L.; Levine, A.; Sanchis-Ojeda, R.; Gandolfi, D.; Nowak, G.; Palle, E.; Prsa, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 803, Issue 2, article id. 82, 13 pp. (2015).
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4
2015
Journal
Citations
50
Refereed citations
45
Description
We report the discovery of two new low-mass, thermally bloated, hot
white dwarfs among the Kepler sample of eclipsing binaries. These are
KIC 9164561 and KIC 10727668 with orbital periods of 1.2670 and 2.3058
days, respectively. The current primary in both systems is an A star of
about 2 {{M}ȯ }. This brings the number of similar
binaries among the Kepler sample to six, and the two new systems have
the shortest orbital periods among them. The white dwarf (WD) in KIC
9164561 has the largest thermal bloating, compared to its cold
degenerate radius, of about a factor of 14. We utilize radial velocity
measurements of the A star in KIC 9164561 to determine the WD mass
rather accurately: 0.197+/- 0.005 {{M}ȯ }. The mass of
the WD in KIC 10727668 is based on the Doppler boosting signal in the
Kepler photometry and is less accurately determined to be 0.266+/- 0.035
{{M}ȯ }. Based on the inferred radii and effective
temperatures of these two white dwarfs, we are able to make an
independent theoretical estimate of their masses to within ∼0.01
{{M}ȯ } based on evolutionary models of their cooling
history after they lose their hydrogen-rich envelopes. We also present
evidence that there is a third body in the KIC 9164561 system with an
orbital period of 8–14 yr.
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