Primeval very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs -- VIII. The first age benchmark L subdwarf, a wide companion to a halo white dwarf

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a halo white dwarf and L subdwarf binary system, providing a rare benchmark for studying metal-poor ultracool dwarf atmospheres and evolution with well-constrained age and metallicity.

Contribution

It presents the first well-characterized L subdwarf in a binary system with a white dwarf, offering new insights into metal-poor ultracool dwarf properties.

Findings

The system is a halo binary at 75.6 pc with a 1375 au separation.

The white dwarf has an age of about 10.5 Gyr.

The L subdwarf has a metallicity of [M/H] ≈ -0.72 and Teff ≈ 2298 K.

Abstract

We report the discovery of five white dwarf + ultracool dwarf systems identified as common proper motion wide binaries in the Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars. The discoveries include a white dwarf + L subdwarf binary, VVV 1256-62AB, a gravitationally bound system located 75.6(+1.9/-1.8) pc away with a projected separation of 1375(+35/-33) au. The primary is a cool DC white dwarf with a hydrogen dominated atmosphere, and has a total age of 10.5(+3.3/-2.1) Gyr, based on white dwarf model fitting. The secondary is an L subdwarf with a metallicity of [M/H] = -0.72(+0.08/-0.10) (i.e. [Fe/H] = -0.81+/-0.10) and Teff = 2298(+45/-43) K based on atmospheric model fitting of its optical to near infrared spectrum, and likely has a mass just above the stellar/substellar boundary. The sub-solar metallicity of the L subdwarf and the system's total space velocity of 406 km/s indicates membership in the Galactic halo, and it has a flat eccentric Galactic orbit passing within 1~kpc of the centre of the Milky Way every ~0.4Gyr and extending to 15-31 kpc at apogal. VVV 1256-62B is the first L subdwarf to have a well-constrained age, making it an ideal benchmark of metal-poor ultracool dwarf atmospheres and evolution.