Is Galactic Dark Matter White ?

Abstract

We calculate the expected white dwarf luminosity functions and discovery functions in photometric passbands, if these stellar remnants provide a substantial fraction of the sought Galactic dark matter, as suggested on various observational grounds. We demonstrate the extremely rapid variation of the photometic signature of halo white dwarfs with time and thus the powerful diagnostic of white dwarf colors to determine the age of the Galactic halo. We also consider the various indirect constraints implied by a white dwarf dominated halo. These calculations will guide present and future observational projects at faint magnitudes. This will enable us to determine not only the nature of the Galactic dark matter but also the age and the initial conditions of the Galaxy formation.

14 pages, Latex file, uses aasms4.sty, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Massive Compact Halo Objects Viewed from a Cosmological Perspective: Contribution to the Baryonic Mass Density of the Universe

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