Detection and preliminary characterization of polluted white dwarfs from Gaia EDR3 and LAMOST

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 527; no. 3; pp. 4515 - 4544
• Main Authors: Badenas-Agusti, Mariona, Vanderburg, Andrew, Blouin, Simon, Dufour, Patrick, Viaña, Javier, Seager, Sara, Wang, Sharon X
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Oxford University Press 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Air pollution; Atmospheric composition; Calcium; Pollution sources; Sky surveys (astronomy); Space telescopes; Spectroscopic telescopes; Stellar evolution; Visual observation; White dwarf stars; stars: atmospheres; methods: observational; methods: data analysis; techniques: spectroscopic; catalogues; stars: white dwarfs; stars: abundances
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad3362

ABSTRACT
We present a catalogue of 62 polluted white dwarfs observed by the 9th Low-Resolution Data Release of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST LRS DR9v1; R≈1800) and the Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) of the Gaia Mission. Among these stellar remnants, 30 are new discoveries with previously unknown traces of calcium pollution. To generate our catalogue, we used a data base of 4324 unique Gaia EDR3 white dwarf candidates with LAMOST LRS DR9v1 observations, many of which have been spectroscopically confirmed by other telescopes. For these stars, we developed a quantitative method to detect calcium absorption in their spectra between 3900–4000 Å, which we then validated through visual inspection and multiple literature cross-checks. Our catalogue provides the astrometric and photometric properties of the white dwarf candidates, incorporates supplementary data (e.g. Montreal White Dwarf Database, MWDD; PanSTARRS; the Hubble Space Telescope), and indicates the possibility of calcium pollution in their atmospheres. For our final sample of polluted white dwarfs, we also determine the main atmospheric properties of 23 sources with effective temperatures Teff ≤ 25 000 K and no existing calcium abundances in the MWDD. Our analysis represents a first step towards measuring the full atmospheric composition of these stars and learning about the bulk properties of their accreted material. As we venture into the era of wide-field spectroscopic surveys, our work highlights the importance of combining large-scale data bases for identifying and characterizing new polluted white dwarfs.