February 07, 1996 - February 07, 2029

  • Date:27WednesdayOctober 2010

    NLTT 11748 - The first eclipsing detached double WD binary

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    Time
    11:15 - 12:30
    Location
    Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
    LecturerA. Shporer
    UCSB/LCOGT
    Organizer
    Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics
    Contact
    AbstractShow full text abstract about NLTT 11748 is the first detached double white dwarf (WD) bin...»
    NLTT 11748 is the first detached double white dwarf (WD) binary system where eclipses have been discovered. It is also the first such system including a low mass, helium core WD. I will present the discovery of the system, and the interesting astrophysical phenomena that can be observed in it. One of those is the relativistic beaming effect, where the unique WD mass-luminosity relation leads to a relatively large beaming-induced variability amplitude, which we were able to detect from the ground. Finally, I will briefly discuss our plans to look for additional similar systems.
    Lecture