The low-mass white dwarf companion to β Crateris

Abstract

We present FUSE H Lyman series spectroscopy of the hot white dwarf companion to the 4th magnitude A1III star βCrt, which shows that it has an unusually low mass, M_WD=0.43M_solar, and has almost certainly evolved through binary interaction. This system could be a long-sought remnant of Algol-type evolution, although radial velocity measurements appear to show that the pair are not close. Instead, micro-variations in the proper motion of βCrt as measured by Hipparcos suggest that the period could be as high as ~10yr. However, a low-mass white dwarf in a system with a period >~3yr is difficult to explain by conventional models for binary evolution. We speculate on alternative models for the evolution of this system which involve an eccentric binary or multiple components.