Twins: The Two Shortest Period Non-Interacting Double Degenerate White Dwarf Stars

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of the shortest period non-interacting white dwarf binary systems, with periods around 1 hour, which are expected to merge within 100 million years but unlikely to produce Type 1a supernovae.

Contribution

The study identifies and characterizes two ultra-short period white dwarf binaries using SDSS data and follow-up spectroscopy, providing new insights into their properties and merger timescales.

Findings

Discovered two white dwarf binaries with ~1 hour periods

Estimated merger times less than 100 million years

Systems unlikely to produce Type 1a supernovae

Abstract

We report on the detection of the two shortest period non-interacting white dwarf binary systems. These systems, SDSS J143633.29+501026.8 and SDSS J105353.89+520031.0, were identified by searching for radial velocity variations in the individual exposures that make up the published spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We followed up these systems with time series spectroscopy to measure the period and mass ratios of these systems. Although we only place a lower bound on the companion masses, we argue that they must also be white dwarf stars. With periods of approximately 1 hour, we estimate that the systems will merge in less than 100 Myr, but the merger product will likely not be massive enough to result in a Type 1a supernova.