Interferometric Astrometry of the Detached White Dwarf - M Dwarf Binary Feige 24 Using Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor 3: White Dwarf Radius and Component Mass Estimates

Abstract

With HST FGS 3 we have determined a parallax for the white dwarf - M dwarf interacting binary, Feige 24. The white dwarf (DA) component has an effective temperature, T_eff of approximately 56,000 K degrees. A weighted average with past parallax determinations (pi_abs = 14.6 +- 0.4 milliseconds of arc) narrows the range of possible radius values, compared to past estimates. We obtain R_DA = 0.0185 +- 0.0008 R_solar with uncertainty in the temperature and bolometric correction the dominant contributors to the error. FGS photometry provides a light curve entirely consistent with reflection effects. A recently refined model Mass-Luminosity Relation (Baraffe et al. 1998) for low mass stars provides a mass estimate for the M dwarf companion, M_dM = 0.37 +- 0.20 M_solar, where the mass range is due to metallicity and age uncertainties. Radial velocities from Vennes and Thorstensen (1994) provide a mass ratio from which we obtain M_DA = 0.49+0.19-0.05 ~ M_solar. Independently, our radius and recent log_g determinations yield 0.44 < M_DA < 0.47 M_solar. In each case the minimum DA mass is that derived by Vennes & Thorstensen from their radial velocities and Keplerian circular orbits with inclination <= 90 degrees. Locating Feige 24 on an M - R plane suggests a carbon core. Our radius and these mass estimates yield a gamma_grav inconsistent with that derived by Vennes & Thorstensen. We speculate on the nature of a third component whose existence would resolve the discrepancy.