Toloza Castillo, Odette Fabiola

Abstract The 1215.67 Å H i Lyα emission line dominates the ultraviolet flux of low-mass stars, including the majority of known exoplanet hosts. Unfortunately, strong attenuation by the interstellar medium (ISM) obscures the line core in most stars, requiring the intrinsic Lyα flux to be reconstructed based on fits to the line wings. We present a test of the widely used Lyα emission-line reconstruction code lyapy using phase-resolved, medium-resolution STIS G140M observations of the close white dwarf–M dwarf binary EG UMa. The Doppler shifts induced by the binary orbital motion move the Lyα emission line in and out of the region of strong ISM attenuation. Reconstructions of each spectrum should produce the same Lyα profile regardless of phase, under the well-justified assumption that there is no intrinsic line variability between observations. Instead, we find that the reconstructions underestimate the Lyα flux by almost a factor of 2 for the lowest velocity, most attenuated spectrum, due to a degeneracy between the intrinsic Lyα and ISM profiles. Our results imply that many stellar Lyα fluxes derived from G140M spectra reported in the literature may be underestimated, with potential consequences for, for example, estimates of extreme-ultraviolet stellar spectra and ultraviolet inputs into simulations of exoplanet atmospheres.

White dwarf studies carry significant implications across multiple fields of astrophysics, including exoplanets, supernova explosions, and cosmological investigations. Thus, accurate determinations of their fundamental parameters (Teff and log g) are of utmost importance. While optical surveys have provided measurements for many white dwarfs, there is a lack of studies utilizing ultraviolet (UV) data, particularly focusing on the warmer ones that predominantly emit in the UV range. Here, we present the medium-resolution far-UV spectroscopic survey of 311 DA white dwarfs obtained with Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) onboard Hubble Space Telescope confirming 49 photometric Gaia candidates. We used 3D extinction maps, parallaxes, and hydrogen atmosphere models to fit the spectra of the stars that lie in the range $12\, 000 \lt \mbox{$T_{\mathrm{eff}}$}\lt 33\, 000$ K, and $7 \le \mbox{$\log g$}\lt 9.2$. To assess the impact of input physics, we employed two mass–radius relations in the fitting and compared the results with previous studies. The comparisons suggest the COS Teff are systematically lower by 3 per cent, on average, than Balmer line fits while they differ by only 1.5 per cent from optical photometric studies. The mass distributions indicate that the COS masses are smaller by ≈0.05  and 0.02 M⊙ than Balmer lines and photometric masses, respectively. Performing several tests, we find that the discrepancies are either arising due to issues with the COS calibration, broadening theories for hydrogen lines, or interstellar reddening which needs further examination. Based on comparative analysis, we identify 30 binary candidates drawing attention for follow-up studies to confirm their nature.