Evidence of enhanced magnetism in cool, polluted white dwarfs

We report the discovery of a new, polluted, magnetic white dwarf in the Luyten survey of high-proper motion stars. High-dispersion spectra of NLTT 7547 reveal a complex heavy element line spectrum in a cool (≈5200 K) hydrogen-dominated atmosphere showing the effect of a surface averaged field of 163...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kawka, Adela, Vennes, S., Ferrario, L., Paunzen, E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: OXFORD UNIV PRESS 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty3048
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80398
Description
Summary:We report the discovery of a new, polluted, magnetic white dwarf in the Luyten survey of high-proper motion stars. High-dispersion spectra of NLTT 7547 reveal a complex heavy element line spectrum in a cool (≈5200 K) hydrogen-dominated atmosphere showing the effect of a surface averaged field of 163 kG, consistent with a 240 kG centred dipole, although the actual field structure remains uncertain. The abundance pattern shows the effect of accreted material with a distinct magnesium-rich flavour. Combined with earlier identifications, this discovery supports a correlation between the incidence of magnetism in cool white dwarfs and their contamination by heavy elements.