A crystallizing white dwarf in a sirius-like quadruple system

Abstract

The observational signature of core crystallization of white dwarfs has recently been discovered. However, the magnitude of the crystallization-powered cooling delay required to match observed white dwarfs is larger than predicted by conventional models, requiring additional mechanisms of energy release in white dwarf interiors. The most ideal benchmarks for understanding this discrepancy would be bright and nearby crystallizing white dwarfs with total ages that can be externally constrained. In this work, we report that a recently discovered white dwarf is a bound companion to the triple star HD 190412, forming a new Sirius-like system in the solar neighbourhood. The location of HD 190412 C on the T_eff - mass diagram implies it is undergoing crystallization, making this the first confirmed crystallizing white dwarf whose total age can be externally constrained. Motivated by the possibility that a cooling delay caused by crystallization can be directly detected for this white dwarf we employ a variety of methods to constrain the age of the system; however, our empirical age anomaly of +3.1 ± 1.9 Gyr is ultimately too imprecise to reach statistical significance, preventing us from making strong constraints to models of white dwarf crystallization. Our results are none the less compatible with the recent hypothesis that ²²Ne phase separation is responsible for the excess cooling delay of crystallizing white dwarfs. The discovery of this system at only 32 parsecs suggests that similar benchmark systems are likely to be common; future discoveries may therefore provide powerful tests for models of white dwarf crystallization.