Population synthesis of double white dwarfs: evolutionary effects on system properties

TL;DR

This study uses binary population synthesis to explore how different evolutionary pathways influence the properties of double white dwarf systems, with implications for gravitational wave detection and astrophysical interpretation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of binary interactions on DWD properties using the COMPAS code, highlighting evolutionary pathways and their observational signatures.

Findings

Reproduces bimodal distribution of orbital separations with a deficit around 100-500 R_sun.

Core compositions correlate with orbital separation, with He-core WDs in close systems.

Identifies a link between mass transfer rates and final orbital configurations.

Abstract

Double white dwarf (DWD) binaries are natural outcomes of binary stellar evolution and key sources for future space-based gravitational wave (GW) observatories such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We investigate how different binary interaction channels shape the physical and orbital properties of DWD systems, focusing on component masses, orbital separations, core compositions, and mass transfer rates. Using the binary population synthesis code COMPAS, we evolve $10^7$ binaries with physically motivated initial distributions of binary parameters. Our simulations reproduce the strong bimodality in the final orbital separations, including a pronounced deficit of systems around $100-500 \rm\,R_\odot$, arising from distinct evolutionary pathways: wide DWDs predominantly originate from stable Roche lobe overflow (RLOF), while close DWDs form through unstable RLOF leading to at least one common envelope (CE) phase. Moreover, we show that the core compositions of WDs provide a powerful tracer of evolutionary history: He-core WDs are strongly concentrated in close systems, whereas CO-core WDs span the full separation range and exhibit a small mass gap in wide binaries. We further identify a correlation between the donor mass transfer rate and the final orbital separation, highlighting the impact of non-conservative mass transfer on the resulting orbital configuration of DWD systems. These results underscore the links among evolutionary channels, chemical composition, and mass transfer rates; thereby provide a unique framework for interpreting Gaia DWD samples and forecasting the joint electromagnetic and GW population accessible to LISA.