Near-infrared spectroscopy of the very low mass companion to the hot DA white dwarf PG1234+482

Abstract

We present a near-infrared spectrum of the hot ($T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ $\approx$ 55,000 K) DA white dwarf PG 1234+482. We confirm that a very low mass companion is responsible for the previously recognised infrared photometric excess. We compare spectra of M and L dwarfs, combined with an appropriate white dwarf model, to the data to constrain the spectral type of the secondary. We find that uncertainties in the 2MASS $HK$ photometry of the white dwarf prevent us from distinguishing whether the secondary is stellar or substellar, and assign a spectral type of L0$\pm$1 (M9-L1).Therefore, this is the hottest and youngest ($\approx 10^6$ yr) DA white dwarf with a possible brown dwarf companion.

5 pages, 2 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (2)

• SDSS J150722.30+523039.8: a CV formed directly from a detached white dwarf/brown dwarf binary?
• Infrared Photometric Analysis of White Dwarfs from The Two Micron All Sky Survey and the Spitzer Space Telescope