Collaborative Proposal: The ELM Survey, Short Period Binary White Dwarfs as Supernova Progenitors, Gravitational Wave Sources, and Probes of Extreme Stellar Evolution

这项工作的研究目标是探测和表征双星系统中的极低质量白矮星，以帮助理解可能的Ia型超新星前身。大约30-50个新系统将被识别和研究，通过斯隆数字天空调查和超高速恒星调查确定的极低质量白矮星的新普查。这项工作将为奇特的低质量白矮星的形成和命运提供关键的新见解。它还将对短周期系统中的广义相对论和潮汐演化进行新的测试。了解宇宙的组成和历史是现代天体物理学的核心。在过去的15年里，对Ia型超新星(SNE)的观测表明，宇宙的膨胀是由暗能量主导的。在我们找到前身之前，我们不可能理解系统的不确定性，也不可能优化SNE Ia来明确地探索宇宙学。因此，SNE Ia前体问题是当今天文学中的一个关键问题，而这项研究有望为我们理解这些奇异的系统增加重要的知识。这项工作还为本科生、研究生和博士后参与观察、数据分析和结果传播制定了广泛的计划。

The research goal of this work is to detect and characterize very low mass white dwarfs in binary systems, in order to help understand likely Type Ia supernovae progenitors. About 30-50 new systems will be identified and studied with a new census of extremely low-mass white dwarfs identified using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hyper-Velocity Star Survey. This work will provide critical new insights into the formation and fate of exotic low-mass white dwarfs. It will also give us new tests of General Relativity and tidal evolution in short-period systems.Understanding the constituents and history of the cosmos lies at the heart of modern astrophysics. In the last 15 years, observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe) indicate that the expansion of the universe is dominated by dark energy. Until we find the progenitors, it is impossible to understand the systematic uncertainties and to optimize SNe Ia to definitively explore cosmology. The SNe Ia progenitor problem is therefore a key problem in astronomy today, and this research promises to add significant knowledge to our understanding of these exotic systems. The work also has a broad plan for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral involvement in the observations, data analysis, and dissemination of results.