Magnetic White Dwarfs

Understand

In this paper we review the current status of research on the observational and theoretical characteristics of isolated and binary magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs).

• Magnetic fields of isolated MWDs are observed to lie in the range 10^3-10^9G.
• While the upper limit cutoff appears to be real, the lower limit is more difficult to investigate.
• The incidence of magnetism below a few 10^3G still needs to be established by sensitive spectropolarimetric surveys conducted on 8m class telescopes.