2008/03/06 by Justin D. R. Steinfadt, Lars Bildsten, Steve B. Howell · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/588022
4 Pages - Accepted to Ap J Letters
arxiv created 2008/03/06 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We have discovered a partially eclipsing white dwarf, low-mass M dwarf binary (3.015114 hr orbital period), SDSS J143547.87+373338.5, from 2007 May observations at the WIYN telescope. Here we present blue-band photometry of three eclipses. Eclipse fitting gives main-sequence solutions to the M dwarf companion of M S = 0.15–0.35 M ☉ and R S = 0.17–0.32 R ☉ . Analysis of the SDSS spectrum constrains the M dwarf further to be of type M4-M6 with M S = 0.11–0.20 M ☉ . Once full radial velocity curves are measured, high-precision determinations of the masses and radii of both components will be easily obtained without any knowledge of stellar structure or evolution. ZZ Ceti pulsations from the white dwarf were not found at our 4 mmag detection limit.