2009/02/24 by P. D. Dobbie, S. L. Casewell, M. R. Burleigh +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14645.x
accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2009/02/24 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report the identification, from a photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic study, of a massive white dwarf member of the nearby, approximately solar metallicity, Coma Berenices open star cluster (Melotte 111). We find the optical to near-infrared energy distribution of WD 1216+260 to be entirely consistent with that of an isolated DA and determine the effective temperature and surface gravity of this object to be Teff= 15 739+197−196 K and log g= 8.46+0.03−0.02. We set tight limits on the mass of a putative cool companion, M≳ 0.036 M⊙ (spatially unresolved) and M≳ 0.034 M⊙ (spatially resolved and a≲ 2500 au). Based on the predictions of CO core, thick H layer evolutionary models we determine the mass and cooling time of WD 1216+260 to be MWD= 0.90 ± 0.04 M⊙ and τcool= 363+46−41 Myr, respectively. For an adopted cluster age of τ= 500 ± 100 Myr we infer the mass of its progenitor star to be Minit= 4.77+5.37−0.97 M⊙. We briefly discuss this result in the context of the form of the stellar initial mass–final mass relation.