A temperature scale of $1\sim 2$ eV in the mass-radius relationship of white dwarfs of type DA

Abstract

The mass-radius relationship of white dwarfs (WDs) is one of their defining characteristics, largely derived from electron degeneracy pressure. We present a model-independent study of the observed mass-radius relationship in WD binaries of \cite{Parsons_2017}, listing data over a broad temperature range up to about 60,000 K (5 eV). The data show an appreciable temperature sensitivity with pronounced intrinsic scatter (beyond measurement uncertainty) for the canonical He-models with proton-to-neutron ratio 1:1. We characterize temperature sensitivity by a temperature scale $T_0$ in model-agnostic power-law relations with temperature normalized radius. For low-mass WDs, the results identify a remarkably modest $T_0=1\sim 2$ eV. We comment on a potential interpretation for atmospheres insulating super-Eddington temperature cores from the sub-Eddington photospheres of low-mass WDs.

8 pages, 6 figures, to appear in NewA