The White Dwarf Initial–Final Mass Relation from Open Clusters in Gaia DR3
Creators
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1.
University of British Columbia
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2.
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
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3.
California Institute of Technology
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4.
University of Warwick
Abstract
The initial–final mass relation (IFMR) links a star’s birth mass to the mass of its white dwarf (WD) remnant, providing key constraints on stellar evolution. Open clusters offer the most straightforward way to empirically determine the IFMR, as their well-defined ages allow for direct progenitor lifetime estimates. We construct the most comprehensive open cluster WD IFMR to date by combining new spectroscopy of 22 WDs with an extensive literature review of WDs with strong cluster associations. To minimize systematics, we restrict our analysis to spectroscopically confirmed hydrogen-atmosphere (DA) WDs consistent with single-stellar origins. We separately analyze a subset with reliable Gaia-based astrometric membership assessments, as well as a full sample that adds WDs with strong cluster associations whose membership cannot be reliably assessed with Gaia. The Gaia-based sample includes 69 spectroscopically confirmed DA WDs, more than doubling the sample size of previous Gaia-based open cluster IFMRs. The full sample, which includes 53 additional literature WDs, increases the total number of cluster WDs by over 50% relative to earlier works. We provide functional forms for both the Gaia-based and full-sample IFMRs. The Gaia-based result useful for Mi ≥ 2.67 M⊙ is M_f = 0.179 − 0.100 H (M_i − 3.84 M⊙) × (M_i − 3.84 M⊙) + 0.628 M⊙, where H(x) is the Heaviside step function. Comparing our IFMR to recent literature, we identify significant deviations from best-fit IFMRs derived from both Gaia-based volume-limited samples of field WDs and double WD binaries, with the largest discrepancy occurring for initial masses of about 5 M⊙.
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee for their constructive feedback, which helped improve the clarify of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery grants Nos. DG-RGPIN-2022-03051 and DG-RGPIN-2023-04486. This research received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program number 101002408 (MOS100PC). This work includes results based on observations obtained at the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini Observatory partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Gemini spectra were processed using the DRAGONS package (K. Labrie et al. 2023). LRIS spectra were reduced using the Lpipe pipeline (D. A. Perley 2019).
Facilities
Gaia - (DR2 & DR3), Gemini:Gillett - Gillett Gemini North Telescope (GMOS-N), Gemini:South - Gemini South Telescope (GMOS-S), Keck:I - KECK I Telescope (LRIS).
Software References
Astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013,2018, 2022), emcee (D. Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013).
Data Availability
The initial WD cluster-member candidate sample was developed using the E. L. Hunt & S. Reffert (2023) and N. P. Gentile Fusillo et al. (2021) catalogs, both of which are publicly available. Reduced Gemini GMOS spectra are available upon request, while raw data can be accessed from the Gemini archive following the designated embargo period.
Files
Miller_2026_ApJ_996_69.pdf
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Additional details
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:2510.24877 (arXiv)
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- DG-RGPIN-2022-03051
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- DG-RGPIN-2023-04486
- European Research Council
- 101002408
- W. M. Keck Foundation
Dates
- Submitted
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2025-07-09
- Accepted
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2025-10-27
- Available
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2025-12-24Published