Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter HotStars

Thursday, 15 September 2022, 17:15   (SFG 1030 / virtual HotStars)

Hunting for the progenitors of helium white dwarfs

Henry Willems, Stephan Geier, Martin Roth
Institute for Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam

We will report about a project aimed at finding the progenitors of helium white dwarfs. These low-mass white dwarfs are of interest, because binary interactions are likely required to form them. Targets were selected from the recent catalogue of hot subdwarf stars focusing on objects situated below the horizontal branch. Combining atmospheric parameters taken from the literature with Gaia astrometry and spectral energy distributions, masses and radii are determined. The goal is to identify low-mass candidates and estimate their fraction with respect to the dominant population of core helium-burning hot subdwarfs.