Absolute Proper Motions to B~22.5: IV. Faint, Low Velocity White Dwarfs and the White Dwarf Population Density Law

Abstract

The reduced proper motion diagram (RPMD) for a complete sample of faint stars with high accuracy proper motions in the North Galactic Pole field SA57 is investigated. Eight stars with very large reduced proper motions are identified as faint white dwarf candidates. We discriminate these white dwarf candidates from the several times more numerous QSOs based on proper motion and variability. We discuss the implausibility that these stars could be any kind of survey contaminant. If {\it bona fide} white dwarfs, the eight candidates found here represent a portion of the white dwarf population hitherto uninvestigated by previous surveys by virtue of the faint magnitudes and low proper motions. The newly discovered stars suggest a disk white dwarf scaleheight larger than the values of 250-350 pc typically assumed in assessments of the local white dwarf density. Both a <V/V_{max}> and a more complex maximum likelihood analysis of the spatial distribution of our likely thin disk white dwarfs yield scaleheights of 400-600 pc while at the same time give a reasonable match to the local white dwarf volume density found in other surveys. Our results could have interesting implications for white dwarfs as potential MACHO objects. We can place some direct constraints (albeit weak ones) on the contribution of halo white dwarfs to the dark matter of the Galaxy. Moreover, the elevated scale height that we measure for the thin disk could alter the interpretation of microlensing results to the extent of making white dwarfs untenable as the dominant MACHO contributor. (Abridged)

38 pages, 5 figures, to appear in April ApJ

References in corpus (3)

• High-velocity white dwarfs: thick disk, not dark matter
• Halo White Dwarfs, Thick Disks and a Sanity Check
• On high proper motion white dwarfs from photographic surveys

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