Littlefair, S. P., Dhillon, V. S., Marsh, T. R., Gaensicke, B. T. (Boris T.), Southworth, J. (John) and Watson, C. A.. (2006) A brown dwarf mass donor in an accreting binary. Science, Volume 314 (Number 5805). pp. 1578-1580. ISSN 0036-8075

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Abstract

A long-standing and unverified prediction of binary star evolution theory is the existence of a population of white dwarfs accreting from substellar donor stars. Such systems ought to be common, but the difficulty of finding them, combined with the challenge of detecting the donor against the light from accretion, means that no donor star to date has a measured mass below the hydrogen burning limit. We applied a technique that allowed us to reliably measure the mass of the unseen donor star in eclipsing systems. We were able to identify a brown dwarf donor star, with a mass of 0.052 +/- 0.002 solar mass. The relatively high mass of the donor star for its orbital period suggests that current evolutionary models may underestimate the radii of brown dwarfs.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Physics
Journal or Publication Title:	Science
Publisher:	American Association for the Advancement of Science
ISSN:	0036-8075
Official Date:	2006
Dates:	Date Date Type 2006 Published
Volume:	Volume 314
Number:	Number 5805
Number of Pages:	3
Page Range:	pp. 1578-1580
Identification Number:	10.1126/science.1133333
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/32747

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