ZTFJ0038+2030: A Long-period Eclipsing White Dwarf and a Substellar Companion

October 2021 • 2021ApJ...919L..26V

Authors • van Roestel, Jan • Kupfer, Thomas • Bell, Keaton J. • Burdge, Kevin • Mróz, Przemek • Prince, Thomas A. • Bellm, Eric C. • Drake, Andrew • Dekany, Richard • Mahabal, Ashish A. • Porter, Michael • Riddle, Reed • Shin, Kyung Min • Shupe, David L. • Kulkarni, S. R.

Abstract • In a search for eclipsing white dwarfs using the Zwicky Transient Facility lightcurves, we identified a deep eclipsing white dwarf with an orbital period of 10.4 hr and an undetected substellar companion. We obtained high-speed photometry and radial velocity measurements to characterize the system. The white dwarf has a mass of 0.50 ± 0.02 M_⊙ and a temperature of 10,900 ± 200 K. The companion has a mass of 0.059 ± 0.004 M_⊙ and is a brown dwarf. It has a radius of 0.0783 ± 0.0013 R_⊙, and is one of the physically smallest transiting brown dwarfs known and likely old, ≳8 Gyr. The ZTF discovery efficiency of substellar objects transiting white dwarfs is limited by the number of epochs and as ZTF continues to collect data we expect to find more of these systems.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2021ApJ...919L..26V
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac22b7/pdf
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/2105.08687
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2021/V/2021ApJ...919L..26V.html
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.3847%2F2041-8213%2Fac22b7