The Mass Distribution of White Dwarfs: An Unwavering Obsession

TL;DR

This paper reviews current methods and challenges in determining the mass distribution of white dwarfs, focusing on spectroscopic, parallax, and gravitational redshift techniques, especially at the low-temperature end.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of measurement techniques and highlights the difficulties faced in accurately assessing low-mass white dwarfs.

Findings

Spectroscopic and gravitational redshift methods are key in mass determination.

Challenges increase for cool white dwarfs due to convection effects.

Understanding mass distribution aids in stellar evolution studies.

Abstract

We discuss some of our current knowledge of the mass distribution of DA and non-DA stars using various methods for measuring white dwarf masses including spectroscopic, trigonometric parallax, and gravitational redshift measurements, with a particular emphasis on the problems encountered at the low end of the cooling sequence where energy transport by convection becomes important.