A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Discovery of magnetic fields in five DC white dwarfs
Authors: Berdyugin Andrei V., Piirola Vilppu, Bagnulo Stefano, Landstreet John D., Berdyugina Svetlana V.
Publisher: EDP Sciences
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Journal name in source: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Article number: A2
Volume: 670
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202245149
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202245149
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/178893620
About half of white dwarfs (WDs) evolve to the DC state as they cool; the others become DQ or (temporarily?) DZ WDs. The recent magnetic survey of the local 20 pc volume has established a high frequency of magnetic fields among WDs older than 2–3 Gyr, demonstrating that in low- and average-mass WDs, the effects of magnetism become more common as they age, and the fields on average become stronger. However, the available statistics of WDs older than about 5 Gyr do not clearly establish how fields evolve beyond this age. We are carrying out a survey to clarify the occurrence of magnetism in DC-type WDs in order to better understand this late evolution. We use broadband filter polarimetry, arguably the most efficient way to detect magnetic fields in featureless WDs via continuum circular polarization. Here we report the discovery of a magnetic field in five DC WDs (of 23 observed), almost doubling the total sample of known magnetic WDs belonging to the DC spectral class.
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