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An irradiated brown-dwarf companion to an accreting white dwarf

Nature volume 533, pages 366–368 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Interacting compact binary systems provide a natural laboratory in which to study irradiated substellar objects. As the mass-losing secondary (donor) in these systems makes a transition from the stellar to the substellar regime, it is also irradiated by the primary (compact accretor)1,2. The internal and external energy fluxes are both expected to be comparable in these objects, providing access to an unexplored irradiation regime. The atmospheric properties of donors are largely unknown3, but could be modified by the irradiation. To constrain models of donor atmospheres, it is necessary to obtain accurate observational estimates of their physical properties (masses, radii, temperatures and albedos). Here we report the spectroscopic detection and characterization of an irradiated substellar donor in an accreting white-dwarf binary system. Our near-infrared observations allow us to determine a model-independent mass estimate for the donor of 0.055 ± 0.008 solar masses and an average spectral type of L1 ± 1, supporting both theoretical predictions and model-dependent observational constraints that suggest that the donor is a brown dwarf. Our time-resolved data also allow us to estimate the average irradiation-induced temperature difference between the dayside and nightside of the substellar donor (57 kelvin) and the maximum difference between the hottest and coolest parts of its surface (200 kelvin). The observations are well described by a simple geometric reprocessing model with a bolometric (Bond) albedo of less than 0.54 at the 2σ confidence level, consistent with high reprocessing efficiency, but poor lateral heat redistribution in the atmosphere of the brown-dwarf donor4,5. These results add to our knowledge of binary evolution, in that the donor has survived the transition from the stellar to the substellar regime, and of substellar atmospheres, in that we have been able to test a regime in which the irradiation and the internal energy of a brown dwarf are comparable.

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Figure 1: The average optical and near-infrared spectral energy distribution of SDSS J143317.78+101123.3.
Figure 2: Ellipsoidal and irradiation effects associated with the substellar donor in SDSS J143317.78+101123.3.

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Acknowledgements

This work is based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under programme ID 085.D-0489. J.V.H.S. acknowledges support via studentships from CONACyT (Mexico) and the University of Southampton, as well as research support by the Royal Astronomical Society. R.P.B. has received funding from the European Union Eleventh Framework Programme under grant agreement PIIF-GA-2012-332393. B.T.G. was supported by ERC grant agreement number 320964. P.H.H. acknowledges computing time allocations at the Höchstleistungs Rechenzentrum Nord (HLRN), at the Regionales Rechenzentrum of the University of Hamburg and at the National Energy Research Supercomputer Center (NERSC), which is supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC03-76SF00098.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Juan V. Hernández Santisteban, Christian Knigge & Rene P. Breton

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK

    Stuart P. Littlefair & Vikram S. Dhillon

  3. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Rene P. Breton

  4. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

    Vikram S. Dhillon

  5. Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Boris T. Gänsicke & Thomas R. Marsh

  6. Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK

    Magaretha L. Pretorius

  7. Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Newcastle, ST5 5BG, UK

    John Southworth

  8. Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, Hamburg, 21029, Germany

    Peter H. Hauschildt

Authors
  1. Juan V. Hernández Santisteban
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  10. Peter H. Hauschildt
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Contributions

C.K., S.P.L., V.S.D., B.T.G., T.R.M., M.L.P. and J.S. proposed and planned the observations. All data analysis was done by J.V.H.S. with substantial feedback from C.K., R.P.B. and S.P.L. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan V. Hernández Santisteban.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Posterior probability distributions for the irradiation model parameters.

Colour scale contours show the joint probability for every combination of parameters. Contours represent the 1σ, 2σ and 3σ levels. Marginal posterior distributions are shown as histograms with the median and 1σ marked as dashed lines. The AB distribution is quoted as a truncated distribution with a 2σ upper limit.

Extended Data Figure 2 Redistribution efficiency limits for the irradiated substellar donor.

Allowed family solutions of redistribution efficiencies ε as a function of Bond albedo AB are shown. The black and grey contours represent the 1σ and 2σ confidence levels, respectively.

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Santisteban, J., Knigge, C., Littlefair, S. et al. An irradiated brown-dwarf companion to an accreting white dwarf. Nature 533, 366–368 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17952

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