The Local White Dwarf Population and the Vast New Domain of Stellar Surveys

当地白矮星种群和恒星巡天的广阔新领域

• 批准号: 1413537
• 负责人: Jay Holberg
• 金额: $ 39.31万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1413537&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Local; White; Dwarf; Population; Vast

White dwarfs are the highly dense, planet-sized end states of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel. About 98% of all stars - including our Sun - will end their lives as white dwarfs. The proposal team consists of senior researchers at three institutions, and they have a vast combined experience in observational studies of white dwarfs. Their study of these stars will provide critical insights about the history of the Milky Way galaxy. The project to measure the properties of all white dwarf stars in our solar neighborhood will produce results that are of fundamental importance in several areas of stellar astrophysics. They will also enhance the Villanova Catalog of Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs, which has been a primary resource for the astronomical community (both professional and amateur) for four decades. PI Holberg has authored a popular science book and is working on two more, including one about White Dwarfs. CoPI Oswalt will share results from this program as an American Astronomical Society Shapley Visiting Lecturer. This award will provide training opportunities for a University of Arizona graduate student and for undergraduate students from Villanova University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.The proposal team will compile and characterize a volume-limited sample of the local white dwarf population within 50 parsecs. This will increase the number of well-studied, nearby white dwarfs by an order of magnitude, and it will enable us to address questions such as the relative distribution of different white dwarf types, the binary fraction of white dwarfs, the local mass distribution and chemical evolution of the galaxy, white dwarf spectral evolution, and many others. It will also provide a reference sample for the vast numbers of more distant white dwarfs likely to be discovered with future survey missions like Gaia and LSST. The new observations will also provide significant enhancements to the Villanova Catalog of Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs, which serves as a fundamental reference.

白矮人是耗尽其核燃料的恒星的高度密集，行星大小的末端状态。 大约98％的全明星 - 包括我们的太阳 - 将以白矮人的身份结束他们的生命。该提案团队由三个机构的高级研究人员组成，他们在白矮人的观察研究中拥有丰富的综合经验。 他们对这些恒星的研究将提供有关银河系历史的关键见解。 该项目旨在衡量我们太阳能社区中所有白矮星的特性，将产生在恒星天体物理学的多个地区至关重要的结果。 他们还将增强光谱识别的白色矮人的Villanova目录，这已经是天文学界（专业和业余）的主要资源。 Pi Holberg撰写了一本受欢迎的科学书籍，并正在撰写另外两本书，其中包括关于白矮人的一本。 Copi Oswalt将以美国天文学会的夏普利访问讲师的身份分享该计划的结果。 该奖项将为亚利桑那大学的一名研究生以及Villanova大学和Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University的本科生提供培训机会。该提案团队将编译和描述50帕尔塞克省以内的当地白矮人人口的数量有限样本。 这将增加一个数量级的良好研究，附近的白色矮人的数量，这将使我们能够解决诸如不同的白矮人类型的相对分布，白矮人的二元分数，局部质量分布，局部质量分布和化学分布和化学化学分布以及银河，白矮谱进化的二元分数。 它还将为可能通过诸如Gaia和LSST等调查任务发现的大量更遥远的白色矮人提供参考样本。 新的观察结果还将为光谱鉴定的白矮人的维拉诺瓦目录提供显着增强，这是基本参考。