General relativistic orbital decay in a seven-minute-orbital-period eclipsing binary system

Abstract

General relativity predicts that short orbital period binaries emit significant gravitational radiation, and the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to detect tens of thousands of such systems; however, few have been identified, and only one is eclipsing--the double white dwarf binary SDSS J065133.338+284423.37, which has an orbital period of 12.75 minutes. Here, we report the discovery of an eclipsing double white dwarf binary system with an orbital period of only 6.91 minutes, ZTF J153932.16+502738.8. This system has an orbital period close to half that of SDSS J065133.338+284423.37 and an orbit so compact that the entire binary could fit within the diameter of the planet Saturn. The system exhibits a deep eclipse, and a double-lined spectroscopic nature. We observe rapid orbital decay, consistent with that expected from general relativity. ZTF J153932.16+502738.8 is a significant source of gravitational radiation close to the peak of LISA's sensitivity, and should be detected within the first week of LISA observations.

arXiv comment44 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. Published online by Nature on July 24, 2019

References in corpus (37)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• The Leiden/Argentine/Bonn (LAB) Survey of Galactic HI: Final data release of the combined LDS and IAR surveys with improved stray-radiation corrections
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
• Galactic Reddening in 3D from Stellar Photometry - An Improved Map
• A direct dynamical measurement of the Milky Way's disk surface density profile, disk scale length, and dark matter profile at 4 kpc < R < 9 kpc
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler
• Mass Transfer between Double White Dwarfs
• Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf detonations revisited
• Hydrogen Burning on Accreting White Dwarfs: Stability, Recurrent Novae, and the Post-Novae Supersoft Source
• Prospects for detection of detached double white dwarf binaries with Gaia, LSST and LISA
• LISA verification binaries with updated distances from Gaia Data Release 2
• Models of low-mass helium white dwarfs including gravitational settling, thermal and chemical diffusion, and rotational mixing
• A 12 minute Orbital Period Detached White Dwarf Eclipsing Binary
• Gravitational-wave emission from compact Galactic binaries
• ELLC - a fast, flexible light curve model for detached eclipsing binary stars and transiting exoplanets
• Rapid Orbital Decay in the 12.75-minute WD+WD Binary J0651+2844
• White dwarf evolutionary sequences for low-metallicity progenitors: The impact of third dredge-up
• Spectroscopic Evidence for a 5.4-Minute Orbital Period in HM Cancri
• The IPAC Image Subtraction and Discovery Pipeline for the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory
• V407 Vul: a direct impact accretor
• CHIMERA: a wide-field, multi-color, high-speed photometer at the prime focus of the Hale telescope
• Most Double Degenerate Low Mass White Dwarf Binaries Merge
• Using conditional entropy to identify periodicity
• The Thermal State of the Accreting White Dwarf in AM Canum Venaticorum Binaries
• Limb-Darkening Coefficients for Eclipsing White Dwarfs
• Detection of the optical counterpart of the proposed double degenerate polar RX J1914+24
• Dynamical Tides in Compact White Dwarf Binaries: Helium Core White Dwarfs, Tidal Heating, and Observational Signatures
• Orbital Evolution of Compact White Dwarf Binaries
• Tidal Novae in Compact Binary White Dwarfs
• Using electromagnetic observations to aid gravitational-wave parameter estimation of compact binaries observed with LISA II: The effect of knowing the sky position
• Tidal Perturbations to the Gravitational Inspiral of J0651+2844
• A grid of Synthetic Spectra for Hot DA White Dwarfs and Its Application in Stellar Population Synthesis
• The Kitt Peak Electron Multiplying CCD demonstrator

Cited by in corpus (97)

• AEDGE: Atomic Experiment for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration in Space
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Catalog of Periodic Variable Stars
• LISA for Cosmologists: Calculating the Signal-to-Noise Ratio for Stochastic and Deterministic Sources
• Science with the TianQin Observatory: Preliminary results on Galactic double white dwarf binaries
• Global Analysis of the Gravitational Wave Signal from Galactic Binaries
• A highly magnetised and rapidly rotating white dwarf as small as the Moon
• A systematic search of Zwicky Transient Facility data for ultracompact binary LISA-detectable gravitational-wave sources
• The ELM Survey. VIII. 98 Double White Dwarf Binaries
• Observationally driven Galactic double white dwarf population for LISA
• Populations of double white dwarfs in Milky Way satellites and their detectability with LISA
• The first ultracompact Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf binary
• Spectral separation of the stochastic gravitational-wave background for LISA: observing both cosmological and astrophysical backgrounds
• An 8.8 minute orbital period eclipsing detached double white dwarf binary
• Orbital Decay in a 20 Minute Orbital Period Detached Binary with a Hydrogen Poor Low Mass White Dwarf
• Detecting the anisotropic astrophysical gravitational wave background in the presence of shot noise through cross-correlations
• Spectral separation of the stochastic gravitational-wave background for LISA in the context of a modulated Galactic foreground
• Gravity and limb-darkening coefficients for compact stars: DA, DB, and DBA eclipsing white dwarfs
• A Catalogue of Potential Post Common Envelope Binaries
• A new class of Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf binaries
• Year 1 of the ZTF high-cadence Galactic Plane Survey: Strategy, goals, and early results on new single-mode hot subdwarf B-star pulsators
• Milky Way Satellites Shining Bright in Gravitational Waves
• The ELM Survey. IX. A Complete Sample of Low Mass White Dwarf Binaries in the SDSS Footprint
• Gravitational Wave Radiation of Double Degenerates with Extremely low-mass WD companions
• Temperature and Distance Dependence of Tidal Circularization in Close Binaries: A Catalog of Eclipsing Binaries in the Southern Hemisphere Observed by the TESS Satellite
• Unsupervised machine learning for transient discovery in Deeper, Wider, Faster light curves
• The ELM Survey South. II. Two dozen new low mass white dwarf binaries
• The ELM Survey South. I. An Effective Search for Extremely Low Mass White Dwarfs
• The BlackGEM telescope array I: Overview
• Nonlinear dynamical tides in white dwarf binaries
• The ZTF Source Classification Project: I. Methods and Infrastructure
• A Systematic Search for Short-period Close White Dwarf Binary Candidates Based on Gaia EDR3 Catalog and Zwicky Transient Facility Data
• A 1201 s Orbital Period Detached Binary: the First Double Helium Core White Dwarf LISA Verification Binary
• On networks of space-based gravitational-wave detectors
• The ZTF Source Classification Project: II. Periodicity and variability processing metrics
• ZTF J1901+5309: A 40.6-Minute Orbital Period Eclipsing Double White Dwarf System
• Masses of White Dwarf Binary Companions to Type Ia Supernovae Measured from Runaway Velocities
• Circumbinary exoplanets and brown dwarfs with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Inferring the Presence of Tides in Detached White Dwarf Binaries
• Eclipsing White Dwarf Binaries in Gaia and the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Prospects for Gravitational Wave Measurement of ZTFJ1539+5027
• Extremely low-mass white dwarf stars observed in Gaia DR2 and LAMOST DR8
• A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple
• Gravitational Collider Physics via Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries II: Fine and Hyperfine Structures are Favored
• A gap in the double white dwarf separation distribution caused by the common-envelope evolution: astrometric evidence from Gaia
• An in-depth reanalysis of the alleged type Ia supernova progenitor Henize 2-428
• Two new Double-lined Spectroscopic Binary White Dwarfs
• Minute-cadence Observations of the LAMOST Fields with the TMTS: I. Methodology of Detecting Short-period Variables and Results from the first-year Survey
• Formation and Destiny of White Dwarf and Be Star Binaries
• Constraining the Extra Polarization Modes of Gravitational Waves with Double White Dwarfs
• Prospects for detecting exoplanets around double white dwarfs with LISA and Taiji
• A dense $0.1{\mathbf{M}}_{\odot }$ star in a 51-minute orbital period eclipsing binary
• Hidden in Plain Sight: A Double-lined White Dwarf Binary 26 pc Away and a Distant Cousin
• A rotating white dwarf shows different compositions on its opposite faces
• A Roche Lobe-filling hot Subdwarf and White Dwarf Binary: possible detection of an ejected common envelope
• Orbital decay in an accreting and eclipsing 13.7 minute orbital period binary with a luminous donor
• A seven-Earth-radius helium-burning star inside a 20.5-min detached binary
• Possible Formation Scenarios of ZTF J153932.16+502738.8-A Gravitational Source Close to the Peak of LISA's Sensitivity
• The Discovery of Two LISA Sources within 0.5 kpc
• Orbital decay of double white dwarfs: beyond gravitational wave radiation effects
• CHIME/FRB Discovery of an Unusual Circularly Polarized Long-Period Radio Transient with an Accelerating Spin Period
• Constraining the evolution of Newton's constant with slow inspirals observed from spaceborne gravitational-wave detectors
• Minute-Cadence Observations of the LAMOST Fields with the TMTS: II. Catalogues of Short-Period Variable Stars from the First Two-Year Surveys
• An Eclipsing 47 minute Double White Dwarf Binary at 400 pc
• Compact Objects in close orbits as Gravitational Wave Sources: Formation Scenarios and Properties
• Eclipse timing variation of GK Vir: evidence of a possible Jupiter-like planet in a circumbinary orbit
• Minimum Orbital Periods of H-Rich Bodies
• Fundamental Physics and Cosmology with TianQin
• Properties and Asteroseismological analysis of a new ZZ ceti discovered by TMTS
• Magnetic interactions in orbital dynamics
• Dynamical masses across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
• Multi-band light curve analysis of the 40.5-minute period eclipsing double-degenerate binary SDSS J082239.54$+$304857.19
• GPU-Accelerated Periodic Source Identification in Large-Scale Surveys: Measuring $P$ and $\dot{P}$
• Statistics of Magrathea exoplanets beyond the Main Sequence. Simulating the long-term evolution of circumbinary giant planets with TRES
• Discovery of Dipolar Chromospheres in Two White Dwarfs
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• J0526+5934: a peculiar ultra-short period double white dwarf
• A half-ring of ionized circumstellar material trapped in the magnetosphere of a white dwarf merger remnant
• One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog
• Rotationally and tidally distorted compact stars A theoretical approach to the gravity-darkening exponents for white dwarfs
• Ultrashort-period WD binaries are not undergoing strong tidal heating
• Revealing the nature of long-period transients with space-based gravitational-wave interferometers
• A Multimessenger Strategy for Downselecting the Orientations of Galactic Close White Dwarf Binaries
• Merged white dwarfs and nucleosynthesis
• Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background and Prospects for Single Source Detection with GRACE Follow-On
• Precise Parameters for Two LISA Sources
• Comparing population synthesis models of compact double white dwarfs to electromagnetic observations
• Search for Higher Harmonic Signals from Close White Dwarf Binaries in the mHz Band
• LISA Galactic Binaries in the Roman Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey
• A new code for low-resolution spectral identification of white dwarf binary candidates
• What could KIDSpec, a new MKID spectrograph, do on the ELT?
• Detailed Characterization of Heartbeat Stars and their Tidally Excited Oscillations
• Magnetic dynamos in white dwarfs -III: explaining the occurrence of strong magnetic fields in close double white dwarfs
• Tidal heating in detached double white dwarf binaries
• Two hot pre-white dwarfs inside the red-giant-branch planetary nebula Pa 13 -- Double core evolution or common envelope-induced rejuvenation?
• Rapid Orbital Decay in the Ultracompact Double-degenerate Binary eRASSU J060839.5$-$704014
• Constraining gravitational wave velocities using gravitational and electromagnetic wave observations of white dwarf binaries
• Multi-messenger parameter inference of gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of white dwarf binaries