Alexander Venner

Digging Deeper for Dog Stars: Surveying White Dwarfs in Sirius-like Systems across the Solar Neighbourhood

White dwarfs are the miniscule remnants of stars which have evolved beyond the processes of nuclear fusion. It is known that the sample of white dwarf companions to solar-type stars (known as Sirius-like systems) is highly incomplete even in local space. However, these systems give us unparalleled information on stellar evolution and white dwarf physics. I will present results of a dedicated effort to discover and characterise new Sirius-like systems in the solar neighbourhood. We assemble the first majority-complete sample of Sirius-like systems within the 40 parsec volume, providing us the clearest picture of white dwarfs in multiple systems to date. A key discovery from this search is the first Sirius-like white dwarf confirmed to be undergoing crystallisation, which highlights the potential of multiple-star systems for making new constraints on white dwarf physics. I will then discuss avenues for future work in rounding out the sample of local Sirius-like systems.