Cool White Dwarfs Selection with Pan-STARRS Proper Motions

TL;DR

This paper improves the selection of white dwarfs using Pan-STARRS proper motions by developing outlier rejection methods to reduce proper motion limits and maximize survey volume, with explicit volume integration considering solar position.

Contribution

It introduces robust outlier rejection techniques to lower proper motion detection thresholds, enhancing white dwarf survey completeness.

Findings

Reduced proper motion selection efficiency improved

Maximized survey volume by minimizing proper motion limits

Explicitly integrated volume considering Sun's position

Abstract

The use of Reduced Proper Motion in identifying isolated white dwarfs has long been used as a proxy for the absolute magnitude in a population with known kinematics. This, however, introduces a proper motion detection limit on top of the existing photometric limit. How the survey volume is hampered by this extra parameter is discussed in Hambly et al. 2012. In this work, we discuss some robust outlier rejection methods in order to minimise the proper motion limit and hence maximise the survey volume. The generalised volume, corrected for the distance of the Sun from the Galactic Plane, is integrated explicitly.