An eclipsing 47 min double white dwarf binary at 400 pc
Kepler, S. O.; Hermes, J. J.; Dhillon, V. S.; Parsons, Steven G.; Pelisoli, Ingrid; Munday, James; Tremblay, P. -E.; Barlow, Brad; Marsh, T. R.; Jones, David; Brown, Alex; Littlefair, S. P.; Hegedus, R.; Baran, Andrzej; Breedt, Elmé; Dyer, Martin J.; Green, Matthew J.; Kennedy, Mark R.; Kerry, Paul; Lopez, Isaac D.; Romero, Alejandra D.; Sahman, Dave; Worters, Hannah L.
United Kingdom, Spain, United States, Brazil, Poland, Israel, Ireland, South Africa
Abstract
We present the discovery of the eclipsing double white dwarf (WD) binary WDJ 022558.21-692025.38 that has an orbital period of 47.19 min. Following identification with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, we obtained time series ground based spectroscopy and high-speed multiband ULTRACAM photometry which indicate a primary DA WD of mass $0.40\pm 0.04\, \text{M}_\odot$ and a $0.28\pm 0.02\, \text{M}_\odot$ mass secondary WD, which is likely of type DA as well. The system becomes the third-closest eclipsing double WD binary discovered with a distance of approximately 400 pc and will be a detectable source for upcoming gravitational wave detectors in the mHz frequency range. Its orbital decay will be measurable photometrically within 10 yr to a precision of better than 1 per cent. The fate of the binary is to merge in approximately 41 Myr, likely forming a single, more massive WD.