Spectroscopic and Photometric Observations of White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters

Abstract

White dwarfs in globular clusters offer additional possibilities to determine distances and ages of globular clusters, provided their spectral types and masses are known. We therefore started a project to obtain spectra of white dwarfs in the globular clusters NGC 6397 and NGC 6752. All observed white dwarfs show hydrogen-rich spectra and are therefore classified as DA. Analysing the multicolour photometry of the white dwarfs in NGC 6752 yields an average gravity of log g = 7.84 and 0.53M⊙ as the most probable average mass for globular cluster white dwarfs. Using this average gravity we try to determine independent temperatures by fitting the white dwarf spectra. While the stellar parameters determined from spectroscopy and photometry usually agree within the mutual error bars, the low resolution and S/N of the spectra prevent us from setting constraints stronger than the ones derived from the photometry alone, apart from verifying the hydrogen-rich nature of the targets.