A Crystallizing White Dwarf in a Sirius-Like Quadruple System

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a nearby crystallizing white dwarf in a quadruple system, providing a potential benchmark for testing models of white dwarf cooling delays caused by core crystallization.

Contribution

It presents the first confirmed crystallizing white dwarf with an externally constrained age in a Sirius-like system, highlighting its potential for testing crystallization models.

Findings

White dwarf is undergoing crystallization.

Empirical age anomaly of +3.1±1.9 Gyr observed.

Results are compatible with $^{22}$Ne phase separation hypothesis.

Abstract

The observational signature of core crystallization of white dwarfs has recently been discovered. However, the magnitude of the crystallization-powered cooling delay required to match observed white dwarfs is larger than predicted by conventional models, requiring additional mechanisms of energy release in white dwarf interiors. The most ideal benchmarks for understanding this discrepancy would be bright and nearby crystallizing white dwarfs with total ages that can be externally constrained. In this work we report that a recently discovered white dwarf is a bound companion to the triple star HD 190412, forming a new Sirius-like system in the solar neighbourhood. The location of HD 190412 C on the $T_{\text{eff}}-\text{mass}$ diagram implies it is undergoing crystallization, making this the first confirmed crystallizing white dwarf whose total age can be externally constrained. Motivated by the possibility that a cooling delay caused by crystallization can be directly detected for this white dwarf we employ a variety of methods to constrain the age of the system; however, our empirical age anomaly of $+3.1\pm1.9$ Gyr is ultimately too imprecise to reach statistical significance, preventing us from making strong constraints to models of white dwarf crystallization. Our results are nonetheless compatible with the recent hypothesis that $^{22}$Ne phase separation is responsible for the excess cooling delay of crystallizing white dwarfs. The discovery of this system at only 32 parsecs suggests that similar benchmark systems are likely to be common; future discoveries may therefore provide powerful tests for models of white dwarf crystallization.