The Initial-Final Mass Relation: Direct Constraints at the Low Mass End

Abstract

The initial-final mass relation represents a mapping between the mass of a white dwarf remnant and the mass that the hydrogen burning main-sequence star that created it once had. The relation thus far has been constrained using a sample of ~40 stars in young open clusters, ranging in initial mass from ~2.75 -- 7 Msun, and shows a general trend that connects higher mass main-sequence stars with higher mass white dwarfs. In this paper, we present CFHT/CFH12K photometric and Keck/LRIS multiobject spectroscopic observations of a sample of 22 white dwarfs in two older open clusters, NGC 7789 (t = 1.4 Gyr) and NGC 6819 (t = 2.5 Gyr). We measure masses for the highest S/N spectra by fitting the Balmer lines to atmosphere models and place the first direct constraints on the low mass end of the initial-final mass relation. Our results indicate that the observed general trend at higher masses continues down to low masses, with M_initial = 1.16 Msun main-sequence stars forming M_final = 0.53 Msun white dwarfs (including our data from the very old open cluster, NGC 6791). This extention of the relation represents a four fold increase in the total number of hydrogen burning stars for which the integrated mass loss can now be calculated, assuming a Salpeter initial mass function. The new leverage at the low mass end is used to derive a purely empirical initial-final mass relation without the need for any indirectly derived anchor points. The sample of white dwarfs in these clusters also shows several very interesting systems that we discuss further: a DB (helium atmosphere) white dwarf, a magnetic white dwarf, a DAB (mixed hydrogen/helium atmosphere or a double degenerate DA+DB) white dwarf(s), and two possible equal mass DA double degenerate binary systems.

18 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Astrophys. J. Revised from first version

References in corpus (41)

• Evolutionary tracks and isochrones for low- and intermediate-mass stars: from 0.15 to 7 M_sun, and from Z=0.0004 to 0.03
• The Initial Mass Function of Stars: Evidence for Uniformity in Variable Systems
• Comprehensive analytic formulae for stellar evolution as a function of mass and metallicity
• A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies. I. Scaled solar models and isochrones
• Theoretical isochrones in several photometric systems I. Johnson-Cousins-Glass, HST/WFPC2, HST/NICMOS, Washington, and ESO Imaging Survey filter sets
• Semi-Analytic Modelling of Galaxy Formation: The Local Universe
• Optimal Techniques in Two-dimensional Spectroscopy: Background Subtraction for the 21st Century
• The Formation Rate, Mass and Luminosity Functions of DA White Dwarfs from the Palomar Green Survey
• A Catalog of Spectroscopically Confirmed White Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4
• Chemical yields from low- and intermediate-mass stars: model predictions and basic observational constraints
• The Victoria-Regina Stellar Models: Evolutionary Tracks and Isochrones for a Wide Range in Mass and Metallicity that Allow for Empirically Constrained Amounts of Convective Core Overshooting
• White Dwarf Mass Distribution in the SDSS
• The White Dwarf Cooling Sequence of the Globular Cluster Messier 4
• The Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies in Distant Clusters II: Internal Kinematics of 55 Galaxies in the z=0.33 Cluster CL1358+62
• The White Dwarf Luminosity Function from SDSS Imaging Data
• Metal Abundances of Red Clump Stars in Open Clusters: I. NGC 6819
• The White Dwarf Cooling Sequence of NGC6397
• The True Incidence of Magnetism among Field White Dwarfs
• A Hipparcos study of the Hyades open cluster: Improved colour-absolute magnitude and Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams
• HST Observations of the White Dwarf Cooling Sequence of M4
• Stellar Evolution in NGC 6791: Mass Loss on the Red Giant Branch and the Formation of Low Mass White Dwarfs
• The open cluster initial-final mass relationship and the high-mass tail of the white dwarf distribution
• New Praesepe white dwarfs and the initial mass-final mass relation
• Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy of the Balmer lines in Sirius B
• The CFHT Open Star Cluster Survey II -- Deep CCD Photometry of the Old Open Star Cluster NGC 6819
• The CFHT Open Star Cluster Survey. III. The White Dwarf Cooling Age of the Rich Open Star Cluster NGC 2099 (M37)
• Probing the Faintest Stars in a Globular Star Cluster
• An empirical initial-final mass relation from hot, massive white dwarfs in NGC 2168 (M35)
• The Age and Progenitor Mass of Sirius B
• White Dwarf Sequences in Dense Star Clusters
• Spectral Types and Masses of White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters
• The Open Cluster NGC 7789: II. CCD VI Photometry
• The White Dwarf Cooling Age of the Open Cluster NGC 2420
• The CFHT Open Star Cluster Survey I -- Cluster Selection and Data Reduction
• Interpreting the Colour-Magnitude Diagrams of Open Star Clusters through Numerical Simulations
• Praesepe and the seven white dwarfs
• A Photometric and Spectroscopic Search for White Dwarfs in the Open Clusters NGC 6633 and NGC 7063
• BATC 13-band Photometry of Open Cluster NGC 7789
• Discovery of more than two thousand white dwarfs in the globular cluster Omega Centauri
• Spectroscopic Analysis of the DAB White Dwarf PG 1115+166: An Unresolved DA + DB Degenerate Binary
• A Hot DQ White Dwarf in the Open Star Cluster M35

Cited by in corpus (227)

• LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). I: Solar-Scaled Models
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• Towards a complete accounting of energy and momentum from stellar feedback in galaxy formation simulations
• The frequency of planetary debris around young white dwarfs
• Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology
• Magnetic White Dwarfs
• The White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation for Progenitor Stars From 0.85 to 7.5 M${}_{\odot }$
• Accelerating Compact Object Mergers in Triple Systems with the Kozai Resonance: A Mechanism for "Prompt" Type Ia Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Other Exotica
• The formation of disc galaxies in a LCDM universe
• The AGORA High-Resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project
• The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations
• Super and massive AGB stars - IV. Final fates - Initial to final mass relation
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• New cooling sequences for old white dwarfs
• Foretellings of Ragnarök: World-engulfing Asymptotic Giants and the Inheritance of White Dwarfs
• The initial-final mass relationship of white dwarfs revisited: effect on the luminosity function and mass distribution
• GALEV evolutionary synthesis models - I. Code, input physics and web-interface
• N-body modeling of globular clusters: Masses, mass-to-light ratios and intermediate-mass black holes
• The Cosmic Core-collapse Supernova Rate does not match the Massive-Star Formation Rate
• Probing The Lower Mass Limit for Supernova Progenitors and the High-Mass End of the Initial-Final Mass Relation from White Dwarfs in the Open Cluster M35 (NGC 2168)
• Discovery of a Candidate for the Coolest Known Brown Dwarf
• PARSEC V2.0: Stellar tracks and isochrones of low and intermediate mass stars with rotation
• Fuel Efficient Galaxies: Sustaining Star Formation with Stellar Mass Loss
• Eccentric Planets and Stellar Evolution as a Cause of Polluted White Dwarfs
• Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf
• Semi-empirical white dwarf initial-final mass relationships: a thorough analysis of systematic uncertainties due to stellar evolution models
• The Mass-Loss Induced Eccentric Kozai Mechanism: A New Channel for the Production of Close Compact Object-Stellar Binaries
• A top-heavy stellar initial mass function in starbursts as an explanation for the high mass-to-light ratios of ultra compact dwarf galaxies
• The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs
• A White Dwarf catalogue from Gaia-DR2 and the Virtual Observatory
• Stellar Inventory of the Solar Neighborhood using Gaia DR1
• The frequency and infrared brightness of circumstellar discs at white dwarfs
• Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) Demographics
• The Field White Dwarf Mass Distribution
• An Empirical Measurement of the Initial-Final Mass Relation with Gaia White Dwarfs
• Relativistic deflection of background starlight measures the mass of a nearby white dwarf star
• The Masses of Population II White Dwarfs
• Catalogs of Hot White Dwarfs in the Milky Way from GALEX's Ultraviolet Sky Surveys. Constraining Stellar Evolution
• orvara: An Efficient Code to Fit Orbits using Radial Velocity, Absolute, and/or Relative Astrometry
• Helium enrichment and Carbon-star Production in Metal-rich Populations
• Reaching the End of the White Dwarf Cooling Sequence in NGC 6791
• Equilibrium and Sudden Events in Chemical Evolution
• Detectable close-in planets around white dwarfs through late unpacking
• The Nickel Mass Distribution of Normal Type II Supernovae
• The Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae: Are They Supersoft Sources?
• The Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae
• The Age of the Milky Way Inner Halo
• The Frequency of Debris Disks at White Dwarfs
• Variable Emission from a Gaseous Disc around a Metal-Polluted White Dwarf
• Spitzer IRAC Observations of White Dwarfs. II. Massive Planetary and Cold Brown Dwarf Companions to Young and Old Degenerates
• Carbon star formation as seen through the non-monotonic initial-final mass relation
• White Dwarf Cosmochronology in the Solar Neighborhood
• KOI-3278: A Self-Lensing Binary Star System
• Possible Signs of Water and Differentiation in a Rocky Exoplanetary Body
• Rotating Stellar Models Can Account for the Extended Main Sequence Turnoffs in Intermediate Age Clusters
• White dwarfs in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey: The Substellar Companion Fraction
• Spoon-Feeding Giant Stars to Supermassive Black Holes: Episodic Mass Transfer from Evolving Stars and Their Contribution to the Quiescent Activity of Galactic Nuclei
• Full-lifetime simulations of multiple unequal-mass planets across all phases of stellar evolution
• The rate of WD-WD head-on collisions in isolated triples is too low to explain standard type Ia supernovae
• No evidence for intermediate-mass black holes in the globular clusters $\omega$ Cen and NGC 6624
• Dissolution is the solution: on the reduced mass-to-light ratios of Galactic globular clusters
• The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function: Pieces of the Puzzle
• The Canada-France Imaging Survey: Reconstructing the Milky Way Star Formation History from its White Dwarf Population
• The evolution of the stellar mass function in star clusters
• High resolution optical spectroscopy of Praesepe white dwarfs
• Evidence for an external origin of heavy elements in hot DA white dwarfs
• The Transverse Peculiar Velocity of the Q2237+0305 Lens Galaxy and the Mean Mass of Its Stars
• Evidence for Sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae from Stellar Abundances in Dwarf Galaxies
• Asteroseismic inferences on red giants in open clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6819 and NGC 6811 using Kepler
• Blue Lurkers: Hidden Blue Stragglers on the M67 Main Sequence Identified from their Kepler/K2 Rotation Periods
• Liberating exomoons in white dwarf planetary systems
• The Gaia DR1 Mass-Radius Relation for White Dwarfs
• The Magnetic and Metallic Degenerate G77-50
• The Star Formation History of the Solar Neighbourhood from the White Dwarf Luminosity Function
• High mass-to-light ratios of UCDs - Evidence for dark matter ?
• The Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae: II. Are they Double-Degenerate Binaries? The Symbiotic Channel
• The Core Mass Growth and Stellar Lifetime of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
• The natural emergence of the correlation between H2 and star formation rate surface densities in galaxy simulations
• The age-metallicity dependence for white dwarfs
• The rates of Type Ia Supernovae. II. Diversity of events at low and high redshift
• A new detailed examination of white dwarfs in NGC3532 and NGC2287
• Properties of Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarfs From Monte Carlo Stellar Models
• The photometric evolution of star clusters and the preferential loss of low-mass bodies - with an application to globular clusters
• WD 1856 b: a close giant planet around a white dwarf that could have survived a common-envelope phase
• A study of high proper-motion white dwarfs I. Spectropolarimetry of a cool hydrogen-rich sample
• Discovery of a T dwarf + white dwarf binary system
• New light on Galactic post-asymptotic giant branch stars. I. First distance catalogue
• PopSyCLE: A New Population Synthesis Code for Compact Object Microlensing Events
• An Improved Age-Activity Relationship for Cool Stars older than a Gigayear
• Orbital and Evolutionary Constraints on the Planet Hosting Binary GJ 86 from the Hubble Space Telescope
• The stellar mass function, binary content and radial structure of the open cluster Praesepe derived from PPMXL and SDSS data
• Constraints on the Initial-Final Mass Relation from Wide Double White Dwarfs
• The white dwarf luminosity function
• A selection of hot subluminous stars in the GALEX survey I. Correlation with the Guide Star Catalog
• Uncertain Times: The Redshift-Time Relation from Cosmology and Stars
• SPISEA: A Python-Based Simple Stellar Population Synthesis Code for Star Clusters
• Two Massive White Dwarfs from NGC 2323 and the Initial-Final Mass Relation for Progenitors of 4 to 6.5 M${}_{\odot }$
• Spitzer Planet Limits around the Pulsating White Dwarf GD66
• The TRENDS High-Contrast Imaging Survey. III. A Faint White Dwarf Companion Orbiting HD 114174
• Enhanced Lidov-Kozai migration and the formation of the transiting giant planet WD1856+534b
• Spiral Disk Instability Can Drive Thermonuclear Explosions in Binary White Dwarf Mergers
• The stellar Initial Mass Function of the solar neighbourhood revealed by Gaia
• Constraining the initial mass function of stars in the Galactic Centre
• Another one grinds the dust: Variability of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J104341.53+085558.2
• COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS). I. A High-Gravity T4 Benchmark around an Old White Dwarf and A Re-Examination of the Surface-Gravity Dependence of the L/T Transition
• Twins: The Two Shortest Period Non-Interacting Double Degenerate White Dwarf Stars
• Nonlinear seismic scaling relations
• Cold giant planets evaporated by hot white dwarfs
• Three red giants with substellar-mass companions
• A Parametric Galactic Model toward the Galactic Bulge Based on Gaia and Microlensing Data
• The Impact of Metallicity on the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae
• Dusty WDs in the $WISE$ All Sky Survey $\cap$ SDSS
• A 1.05 $M_{\odot }$ Companion to PSR J2222-0137: The Coolest Known White Dwarf?
• The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function at the Dawn of Gaia
• The Age and Stellar Parameters of the Procyon Binary System
• 1I/2017 'Oumuamua-like Interstellar Asteroids as Possible Messengers from the Dead Stars
• Reconciling 56Ni Production in Type Ia Supernovae with Double Degenerate Scenarios
• Ejection of globular cluster interstellar media through ionization by white dwarfs
• Deep HST Imaging in NGC 6397: Stellar Dynamics
• Infrared Spectroscopy of Symbiotic Stars. VII. Binary Orbit and Long Secondary Period Variability of CH Cygni
• Near-Infrared Constraints on the Presence of Warm Dust at Metal-Rich, Helium Atmosphere White Dwarfs
• Gaia Reveals Evidence for Merged White Dwarfs
• A Young Ultramassive White Dwarf in the AB Doradus Moving Group
• Pre-supernova feedback sets the star cluster mass function to a power law and reduces the cluster formation efficiency
• The sdA problem - II. Photometric and Spectroscopic Follow-up
• The White Dwarf Population in NGC 1039 (M34) and the White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation
• Fast spectrophotometry of WD 1145+017
• Testing White Dwarf Age Estimates using Wide Double White Dwarf Binaries from Gaia EDR3
• The DODO Survey II: A Gemini Direct Imaging Search for Substellar and Planetary Mass Companions around Nearby Equatorial and Northern Hemisphere White Dwarfs
• A comparative analysis of the observed white dwarf cooling sequence from globular clusters
• Further investigation of white dwarfs in the open clusters NGC2287 and NGC3532
• Oxygen isotopic ratios in intermediate-mass red giants
• The Peculiar Globular Cluster System of the S0 Galaxy NGC 7457
• The Progenitors and Lifetimes of Planetary Nebula
• The photometric evolution of dissolving star clusters: II. Realistic models. Colours and M/L ratios
• Visitors from the Halo: 11 Gyr old White Dwarfs in the Solar Neighborhood
• Tracers of stellar mass-loss. I. Optical and near-IR colours and surface brightness fluctuations
• Barium and related stars, and their white-dwarf companions. III. The masses of the white dwarfs
• A Novel Approach to Constrain Rotational Mixing & Convective-Core Overshoot in Stars Using the Initial-Final Mass Relation
• Constraining axion-like particles using the white dwarf initial-final mass relation
• Understanding the internal dynamics of elliptical galaxies without non-baryonic dark matter
• Initial-Final Mass Relation for 3 to 4 M${}_{\odot }$ Progenitors of White Dwarfs from the Single Cluster NGC 2099
• Molecular chemistry and the missing mass problem in PNe
• A Spitzer search for cold dust within globular clusters
• NIHAO III: The constant disc gas mass conspiracy
• Massive White Dwarfs in Young Star Clusters
• Perspectives on Intracluster Enrichment and the Stellar Initial Mass Function in Elliptical Galaxies
• ALMA and Herschel Observations of the Prototype Dusty and Polluted White Dwarf G29-38
• The Discovery of a Debris Disk Around the DAV White Dwarf PG 1541+651
• The diffusion-induced nova scenario. CK Vul and PB 8 as possible observational counterparts
• PHR1315-6555: a bipolar planetary nebula in the compact Hyades-age open cluster ESO96-SC04
• Comparing the White Dwarf Cooling Sequences in 47 Tuc and NGC 6397
• Deep HST Imaging in 47 Tucanae: A Global Dynamical Model
• Chemical Abundances and Dust in the Halo Planetary Nebula K648 in M15: Its Origin and Evolution based on an Analysis of Multiwavelength Data
• Star clusters as laboratories for stellar and dynamical evolution
• The True Luminosities of Planetary Nebulae in M31's Bulge: Massive Central Stars from an Old Stellar Population
• Discovery of a widely separated UCD-WD binary
• Searching in the dark: the dark mass content of the Milky Way globular clusters NGC288 and NGC6218
• The SLUGGS survey: combining stars, globular clusters and planetary nebulae to understand the assembly history of early-type galaxies from their large radii kinematics
• A search for white dwarfs in the Galactic plane: the field and the open cluster population
• Dynamical evolution of two-planet systems and its connection with white dwarf atmospheric pollution
• Accounting for planet-shaped planetary nebulae
• Discovery of the first resolved triple white dwarf
• Direct Distance Measurement to the Dusty White Dwarf GD 362
• A Survey for Planetary Nebulae in M31 Globular Clusters
• The Exotic Eclipsing Nucleus of the Ring Planetary Nebula SuWt2
• DA white dwarfs observed in LAMOST pilot survey
• No Large Dependence of Planet Frequency on Galactocentric Distance
• Limits on Unresolved Planetary Companions to White Dwarf Remnants of 14 Intermediate-Mass Stars
• Metallicity Distribution of Disk Stars and the Formation History of the Milky Way
• An Ultramassive 1.28 M${}_{\odot }$ White Dwarf in NGC 2099
• Evolutionary Constraints on the Planet-Hosting Subgiant Epsilon Reticulum from its White Dwarf Companion
• Activity and Kinematics of White Dwarf-M Dwarf Binaries from the SUPERBLINK Proper Motion Survey
• PG 1258+593 and its common proper motion magnetic white dwarf counterpart
• Rapidly-evolving episodic outflow in IRAS 18113-2503: clues to the ejection mechanism of the fastest water fountain
• IRTF Observations of White Dwarfs with Possible Near-Infrared Excess
• Evidence of Rocky Planetesimals Orbiting Two Hyades Stars
• The Impact of Initial-Final Mass Relations on Black Hole Microlensing
• Two new young, wide magnetic + non-magnetic double-degenerate binary systems
• Discovery of a White Dwarf Companion to HD 159062
• Neglected X-ray discovered polars: II: The peculiar eclipsing binary HY Eridani
• The White Dwarfs of the Old, Solar Metallicity Open Star Cluster Messier 67: Properties and Progenitors
• The Spectral Types of White Dwarfs in Messier 4
• Simplified galaxy formation with mesh-less hydrodynamics
• Does GD 356 have a Terrestrial Planetary Companion?
• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in binary-rich star clusters
• The luminosity function of quasars by the Principle of Maximum Entropy
• Evidence of Spectral Evolution on the white dwarf sample from the Gaia Mission
• Disentangling the Black Hole Mass Spectrum with Photometric Microlensing Surveys
• Component masses of young, wide, non-magnetic white dwarf binaries in the SDSS DR7
• Uncovering new white dwarf - open cluster associations using Gaia DR3
• A massive white dwarf member of the Coma Berenices Open Cluster
• The Mass and Age Distribution of Halo White Dwarfs in the Canada-France Imaging Survey
• Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling of Initial-Final Mass Relations Across Star Clusters
• Disentangling the parameter space: The role of planet multiplicity in triggering dynamical instabilities on planetary systems around white dwarfs
• Disentangling the Galaxy at low Galactic latitudes
• The Gliese 86 Binary System: A Warm Jupiter Formed in a Disk Truncated at $\approx$2 AU
• Time-resolved Spectroscopy of the Polar EU Cancri in the Open Cluster Messier 67
• The Impact of the Third Dredge-up and Mass Loss in Shaping the Initial-Final Mass Relation of White Dwarfs
• The progenitors of magnetic white dwarfs in open clusters
• The Chemical Abundance Structure of the Inner Milky Way: A Signature of "Upside-Down" Disk Formation?
• Dynamic equilibrium sets atomic content of galaxies across cosmic time
• On the most luminous planetary nebulae of M31
• The Mass of the White Dwarf Companion in the Self-Lensing Binary KOI-3278: Einstein vs. Newton
• A Stellar Population Synthesis Model for the Study of Ultraviolet Star Counts of the Galaxy
• Simple interpolation functions for the galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function and its effects in early-type galaxies
• Accurate mass-radius ratios for Hyades white dwarfs
• Common Proper Motion Wide White Dwarf Binaries Selected From The Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Cool White Dwarfs Identified in the Second Data Release of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey
• A Bound on the Light Emitted During the TP-AGB Phase
• A white dwarf bound to the transiting planetary system WASP-98
• Gravitational Microlensing Event Statistics for the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Precise Age for the Binary Star System 12 Com in the Coma Berenices Cluster
• Stellar Migration and Chemical Enrichment in the Milky Way Disc: A Hybrid Model
• Hubble Space Telescope Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Sirius-Like Triple Star System HD 217411
• MagAO Imaging of Long-period Objects (MILO). II. A Puzzling White Dwarf around the Sun-like Star HD 11112
• Precision Astrometry of the Exoplanet Host Candidate GD 66
• Time-series spectroscopy of two candidate double degenerates in the open cluster NGC 6633
• Where to find over-massive brown dwarfs: new benchmark systems for binary evolution
• Quark-Novae Ia in the Hubble diagram: Implications For Dark Energy
• Appraising the Necklace: A post-common-envelope carbon dwarf inside an apparently carbon-poor planetary nebula
• Planetary Nebulae Populations in External Galaxies
• Testing QUMOND theory with Galactic globular clusters in a weak external field
• Identifying highly magnetized white dwarfs: A dimensionality reduction framework for estimating magnetic fields
• The Planetary Nebulae Luminosity Function and distances to Virgo, Hydra I and Coma clusters
• A Survey for hot Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae I. Methods and First Results