Analysis of Previously Classified White Dwarf-Main Sequence Binaries Using Data from the APOGEE Survey

TL;DR

This study analyzes APOGEE near-infrared spectroscopic data for 45 white dwarf-main sequence binaries, classifying systems, deriving orbital parameters, and exploring their metallicity distribution to enhance understanding of their properties and evolution.

Contribution

It provides new classifications, orbital parameters, and metallicity insights for WDMS binaries using APOGEE data, including discovery of systems with long orbital periods.

Findings

Seven systems show significant velocity variations indicating post-common-envelope binaries.

One system is extremely metal-poor with [Fe/H] = -1.42.

PCE systems tend to have higher metallicity than wide binaries.

Abstract

We present analyses of near-infrared, spectroscopic data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey for 45 previously confirmed or candidate white dwarf-main sequence (WDMS) binaries identified by the optical SDSS and LAMOST surveys. Among these 45 systems, we classify three as having red giant primaries in the LAMOST sample and fourteen to be young stellar object contaminants in the photometrically identified SDSS sample. From among the subsample of 28 systems that we confirm to have MS primaries, we derive and place limits on orbital periods and velocity amplitudes for fourteen. Seven systems have significant velocity variations that warrant a post-common-envelope (PCE) binary classification -- four of which are newly classified, three of which are newly confirmed, and five for which we can derive full orbital parameters. If confirmed, one of these newly discovered systems (2M14544500+4626456) will have the second longest orbital period reported for a typical, compact PCE WDMS binary ($P=15.1$ days). In addition to the seven above, we also recover and characterize with APOGEE data the well known PCE WDMS systems EG UMa and HZ 9. We also investigate the overall metallicity distribution of the WDMS sample, which is a parameter space not often explored for these systems. Of note, we find one system (2M14244053+4929580) to be extremely metal-poor (${\rm [Fe/H]}=-1.42$) relative to the rest of the near-solar sample. Additionally, the PCE systems in our sample are found to be, on average, higher in metallicity than their wide-binary counterparts, though we caution that with this small number of systems, the sample may not be representative of the overall distribution of WDMS systems.