Magnetic White Dwarfs

TL;DR

This review summarizes current observational and theoretical understanding of magnetic white dwarfs, highlighting their magnetic field ranges, structures, origins, and presence in binary systems, with recent advances in spectropolarimetric surveys and field modeling.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of magnetic white dwarfs, emphasizing recent findings on their magnetic field strengths, structures, and potential origins, including new insights from spectropolarimetric surveys.

Findings

Magnetic fields in isolated MWDs range from 10^3 to 10^9 G.

Highly magnetic WDs often have complex, non-dipolar fields.

MWDs in binaries (MCVs) exhibit fields from 7 to 230 MG.

Abstract

In this paper we review the current status of research on the observational and theoretical characteristics of isolated and binary magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs). Magnetic fields of isolated MWDs are observed to lie in the range 10^3-10^9G. While the upper limit cutoff appears to be real, the lower limit is more difficult to investigate. The incidence of magnetism below a few 10^3G still needs to be established by sensitive spectropolarimetric surveys conducted on 8m class telescopes. Highly magnetic WDs tend to exhibit a complex and non-dipolar field structure with some objects showing the presence of higher order multipoles. There is no evidence that fields of highly magnetic WDs decay over time, which is consistent with the estimated Ohmic decay times scales of ~10^11 yrs. MWDs, as a class, also appear to be more massive than their weakly or non-magnetic counterparts. MWDs are also found in binary systems where they accrete matter from a low-mass donor star. These binaries, called magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (MCVs) and comprise about 20-25\% of all known CVs. Zeeman and cyclotron spectroscopy of MCVs have revealed the presence of fields in the range $\sim 7-230$\,MG. Complex field geometries have been inferred in the high field MCVs (the polars) whilst magnetic field strength and structure in the lower field group (intermediate polars, IPs) are much harder to establish. The origin of fields in MWDs is still being debated. While the fossil field hypothesis remains an attractive possibility, field generation within the common envelope of a binary system has been gaining momentum, since it would explain the absence of MWDs paired with non-degenerate companions and also the lack of relatively wide pre-MCVs.