Letter to the Editor

Mass distribution of DA white dwarfs in the First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

¹ Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warsaw, Poland
² Departament de Fisica Aplicada, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Av. del Canal Olimpic s/n, 08860, Castelldefels, Spain

Corresponding author: M. Należyty, nalezyty@astrouw.edu.pl

Received: 4 March 2004
Accepted: 23 March 2004

Abstract

We investigate the sample of 1175 new nonmagnetic DA white dwarfs with the effective temperatures  K, which were extracted from the Data Release 1 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determined masses, radii, and bolometric luminosities of stars in the sample. The above parameters were derived from the effective temperatures  and surface gravities  published in the DR1, and the new theoretical  relations for carbon-core and oxygen-core white dwarfs. Mass distribution of white dwarfs in this sample exhibits the peak at (carbon-core stars), and the tail towards higher masses. Both the shape of the mass distribution function and the empirical mass-radius relation are practically identical for white dwarfs with either pure carbon or pure oxygen cores.