The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XXVIII. Characterization of the Galactic White Dwarf Population

Abstract

We use three different techniques to identify hundreds of white dwarf (WD) candidates in the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) based on photometry from the NGVS and GUViCS, and proper motions derived from the NGVS and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Photometric distances for these candidates are calculated using theoretical color-absolute magnitude relations while effective temperatures are measured by fitting their spectral energy distributions. Disk and halo WD candidates are separated using a tangential velocity cut of 200 km~s${}^{-1}$ in a reduced proper motion diagram, which leads to a sample of six halo WD candidates. Cooling ages, calculated for an assumed WD mass of 0.6$M_{\odot }$, range between 60 Myr and 6 Gyr, although these estimates depend sensitively on the adopted mass. Luminosity functions for the disk and halo subsamples are constructed and compared to previous results from the SDSS and SuperCOSMOS survey. We compute a number density of (2.81 $\pm$ 0.52) $\times 10^{-3}$~pc${}^{-3}$ for the disk WD population--- consistent with previous measurements. We find (7.85 $\pm$ 4.55) $\times 10^{-6}$~pc${}^{-3}$ for the halo, or 0.3\% of the disk. Observed stellar counts are also compared to predictions made by the TRILEGAL and Besançon stellar population synthesis models. The comparison suggests that the TRILEGAL model overpredicts the total number of WDs. The WD counts predicted by the Besançon model agree with the observations, although a discrepancy arises when comparing the predicted and observed halo WD populations; the difference is likely due to the WD masses in the adopted model halo.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ, 17 pages, 17 figures

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