Discovery of the Partially Eclipsing White Dwarf Binary SDSS J143547.87+373338.5

Abstract

We have discovered a partially eclipsing white dwarf, low-mass M dwarf binary (3 hour 54.41 second orbital period), SDSS J143547.87+373338.5, from May 2007 observations at the WIYN telescope. Here we present blue band photometry of three eclipses. Eclipse fitting gives main sequence solutions to the M dwarf companion of $M_S=0.15-0.35M_{\odot }$ and $R_S=0.17-0.32R_{\odot }$. Analysis of the SDSS spectrum constrains the M dwarf further to be of type M4-M6 with $M_S=0.11-0.20M_{\odot }$. Once full radial velocity curves are measured, high precision determinations of the masses and radii of both components will be easily obtained without any knowledge of stellar structure or evolution. ZZ Ceti pulsations from the white dwarf were not found at our 4 mmag detection limit.

4 Pages - Accepted to Ap J Letters

References in corpus (6)

• Low-Mass Dwarf Template Spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Post Common Envelope Binaries from SDSS. I: 101 white dwarf main sequence binaries with multiple SDSS spectroscopy
• Identification, Classifications, and Absolute Properties of 773 Eclipsing Binaries Found in the TrES Survey
• SDSS J150722.30+523039.8: a CV formed directly from a detached white dwarf/brown dwarf binary?
• The mass and radius of the M-dwarf in the short period eclipsing binary RR Caeli
• A new detached K7 dwarf eclipsing binary system

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Post Common Envelope Binaries from SDSS. V: Four eclipsing white dwarf main sequence binaries
• Post Common Envelope Binaries from SDSS - III. Seven new orbital periods
• Post common envelope binaries from SDSS. IV: SDSSJ121258.25-012310.1, a new eclipsing system