"Lecture Series on White Dwarfs III - The Galactic White Dwarf Binary Population: A Story of Accretion Physics, Gravitational Wave Sources, and Thermonuclear Supernovae"

Abstract:

White dwarfs are at the core of several research areas in modern astrophysics: one of the dominant low-frequency gravitational wave signals that LISA will detect originates from the galactic population of short-period white dwarf binaries; white dwarf binaries are also the progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae (the cosmic beacons that led to the discovery of dark energy); and white dwarfs are also excellent laboratories to study accretion physics. I will give an overview of our observational census of the extremely varied population of white dwarf binaries, and of our theoretical understanding of their evolution.