Issue |
A&A
Volume 386, Number 3, May II 2002
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 957 - 963 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20020361 | |
Published online | 15 May 2002 |
Binaries discovered by the SPY project*
II. HE 1414–0848: A double degenerate with a mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit
1
Dr. Remeis-Sternwarte, Astronomisches Institut der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sternwartstr. 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany
2
Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universität Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany
3
Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA Cambridge, UK
4
Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya Str., 109017 Moscow, Russia
5
Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
6
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
Corresponding author: R. Napiwotzki, napiwotzki@sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de
Received:
19
November
2001
Accepted:
4
March
2002
In the course of our search for double degenerate (DD) binaries
as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the UVES
spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor
surveY – SPY) we discovered that the white dwarf
HE 1414-0848 is a double-lined DA+DA binary with an orbital period of
.
Semi-amplitudes of 128 km s-1 and 100 km s-1 are derived
for the individual components. The amplitude ratio and the measured
difference in gravitational redshift is used to estimate the masses of
the individual components:
and
. Hence the
total mass of the HE 1414-0848 system is
, only 10%
below the Chandrasekhar limit. The results of a model atmosphere
analysis are consistent with our mass estimated from the
orbit. Temperatures of the individual components are also determined.
Possible scenarios for the formation of this system are discussed.
The system will merge due to loss of
angular momentum via gravitational wave radiation after two Hubble
times. HE 1414-0848 does not qualify as an SN Ia
progenitor, but it is the most massive close DD known
today.
Key words: stars: early-type / binaries: spectroscopic / stars: fundamental parameters / white dwarfs
© ESO, 2002
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