Conveners
Short-period Binaries & Gravitational Waves: Finding short-period binaries
- Mukremin Kilic (University of Oklahoma)
Short-period Binaries & Gravitational Waves: Individual systems
- Warren Brown (Smithsonian)
Short-period Binaries & Gravitational Waves: LISA
- Elena Maria Rossi
With the data release of Gaia DR2 we were able to derive, for the first time, realistic strain, SNR predictions for the known LISA verification binaries. In this talk I will discuss our approach and result. I will also present an overview and the survey strategy of the ZTF high-cadence Galactic Plane survey which aims to find short period variables at low Galactic latitudes.
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is in the process of obtaining well sampled lightcurves of all stars in the Northern hemisphere. In this sample of billions of lightcurves, we can expect to find on the order of a hundred eclipsing double white dwarfs. We are in the process of systematically searching the ZTF lightcurve for these systems, both by doing targeted searches as well a general...
Here we give new updates on an eclipsing double white dwarf binary with an orbital period of only 6.9 minutes. Additionally, we highlight several other candidate LISA DWD sources discovered using the optical time domain and discuss the future of this class of sources in the era of surveys such as LSST.
I will present a refined measurement of orbital decay from gravitational radiation in the second-most compact detached stellar binary known, the eclipsing 12.75-min double white dwarf system J0651+2844. Based on more than 490 hr of ground-based photometry over a nearly 8-year baseline, we measure a shift in mid-eclipse times caused by an orbital decay that can constrain the orbital decay to...
The tidal interactions of white dwarf binaries are crucial for understanding the fates of these systems when they merge, connecting them to different classes of astrophysical explosions and other binary systems. New discoveries of compact white dwarf binaries are putting important constraints on these tidal interactions. In the future, we will hopefully have the opportunity to combine...
AM CVn stars are ultracompact, accreting binaries in which both stars are either degenerate or semi-degenerate. Several formation channels have been suggested for AM CVn binaries, including a favoured model in which they descend directly from double white dwarf binaries. The double white dwarf channel has uncertainties around the fraction of double degenerate binaries which will reach a state...
Compact white dwarf (WD) binaries are expected to be the most abundant source detected by the upcoming gravitational-wave observatory, LISA. Based on both observational indications and theoretical studies, a fraction of these close WD binaries are expected to be undergoing mass transfer. The nature of this mass transfer will determine the long-term survival of the systems and will have...
The upcoming LISA mission is the only experiment that offers the opportunity to map the Milky Way through gravitational wave radiation, exploiting signals from double white dwarf (DWD) binaries. I will show that the large number of DWD detections will allow us to use these systems as tracers of the Milky Way's shape and to measure scale parameters of the bulge, disc and bar. Furthermore, in...
White dwarfs (WDs) comprise $95\%$ of all stellar remnants and are thus a unique probe of the ancient structure of the Milky Way. Current and planned telescopes aren't able to directly probe the entire population due to its inherently low luminosity. However, the Galactic population of double WD binaries gives rise to a strong millihertz gravitational-wave foreground detectable by LISA. Here...
