Stellar forensics — I. Cooling curves
- Creators
-
Hansen, Brad M. S.
-
Phinney, E. Sterl
Abstract
The presence of low-mass, degenerate secondaries in millisecond pulsar binaries offers the opportunity to determine an age for the binary system independently of the rotational properties of the pulsar. To this end, we present here a detailed calculation of the evolution of a grid of low-mass (< 0.5 M⊙) helium core white dwarfs. We investigate the effects of different hydrogen layer masses and provide results for well-known optical bandpasses. We supplement the OPAL opacity calculations with our own calculations for low effective temperatures (T_(eff) < 6000 K) and also provide fitting formulae for the gravity as a function of mass and effective temperature. In Paper II we apply these results to individual cases.
Additional Information
© 1998 RAS. Accepted 1997 September 1. Received 1997 June 3; in original form 1996 November 25. The authors thank Marten van Kerkwijk and Yanqin Wu for lengthy discussions about white dwarf physics, and Glenn Soberman for helping with the initial conditions for our models. The generosity of D. Saumon, G. Fontaine, I. Mazzitelli, F. Rogers and C. Iglesias in providing their microphysical results is also appreciated. We also thank the referee, Dr D'Antona, for some insightful comments on the atmospheric physics.Attached Files
Published - Hansen_et_al-1998-Monthly_Notices_of_the_Royal_Astronomical_Societya.pdf
Accepted Version - 9708273.pdf
Files
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:010deaefe6e41cf98659f49b6590687e
|
388.6 kB | Preview Download |
|
md5:4e5a5acd56bc9be6ded0bbf2d3ee30b3
|
2.1 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 92689
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190205-142100141
- Created
-
2019-02-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- TAPIR