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[16.06] White Dwarf - M Dwarf Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

J. Bochanski, S. Raymond, S. Hawley, P. Szkody (U of Wash), Sloan Digtial Sky Survey Collaboration

We present intial analysis of 109 White Dwarf (WD) - M dwarf pairs observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). For each of these pairs, the temperature of the WD primary and spectral type of the M dwarf were determined. Further examination of the M dwarfs was conducted, using H\alpha emission as a marker of chromospheric activity. Comparing this new data set to that of Hawley et al. (1996), we observe a somewhat higher active fraction of early-type M dwarfs in these pairs. Followup radial velocity observations at the ARC 3.5m telescope are being used to confirm any short period binaries with substantial velocity variations. These observations, which already span over 5 nights, have already detected a short period binary (P=4.1 hr).

We have also produced a catalog of the WD - M dwarf pairs in the DR1 of the SDSS. We report on the status of this project. We gratefully acknoledge the support of NSF grant AST-0205875.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.