1. J-PLUS: The fraction of calcium white dwarfs along the cooling sequence
- Author
-
López-Sanjuan, C., Tremblay, P. -E., O'Brien, M. W., Spinoso, D., Ederoclite, A., Ramió, H. Vázquez, Cenarro, A. J., Marín-Franch, A., Civera, T., Carrasco, J. M., Gänsicke, B. T., Fusillo, N. P. Gentile, Hernán-Caballero, A., Hollands, M. A., del Pino, A., Sánchez, H. Domínguez, Fernández-Ontiveros, J. A., Jiménez-Esteban, F. M., Rebassa-Mansergas, A., Schmidtobreick, L., Angulo, R. E., Cristòbal-Hornillos, D., Dupke, R. A., Hernández-Monteagudo, C., Moles, M., Sodré Jr., L., and Varela, J.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
We used the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) DR2 photometry in twelve optical bands over 2176 deg2 to estimate the fraction of white dwarfs with presence of CaII H+K absorption along the cooling sequence. We compared the J-PLUS photometry against metal-free theoretical models to estimate the equivalent width in the J0395 passband of 10 nm centered at 395 nm (EW_J0395), a proxy to detect calcium absorption. A total of 4399 white dwarfs within 30000 > Teff > 5500 K and mass M > 0.45 Msun were analyzed. Their EW_J0395 distribution was modeled using two populations, corresponding to polluted and non-polluted systems, to estimate the fraction of calcium white dwarfs (f_Ca) as a function of Teff. The probability for each individual white dwarf of presenting calcium absorption, pca, was also computed. The comparison with both the measured Ca/He abundance and the metal pollution from spectroscopy shows that EW_J0395 correlates with the presence of calcium. The fraction of calcium white dwarfs increases from f_Ca = 0 at Teff = 13500 K to f_Ca = 0.15 at Teff = 5500 K. We compare our results with the fractions derived from the 40 pc spectroscopic sample and from SDSS spectra. The trend found in J-PLUS observations is also present in the 40 pc sample, however SDSS shows a deficit of metal-polluted objects at Teff < 12000 K. Finally, we found 39 white dwarfs with pca > 0.99. Twenty of them have spectra presented in previous studies, whereas we observed six additional targets. These 26 objects were all confirmed as metal-polluted systems. The J-PLUS optical data provide a robust statistical measurement for the presence of CaII H+K absorption in white dwarfs. We find a 15 +- 3 % increase in the fraction of calcium white dwarfs from Teff = 13500 K to 5500 K, which reflects their selection function in the optical from the total population of metal-polluted systems., Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics. Comments are welcome
- Published
- 2024