Discovery of six new strongly magnetic white dwarfs in the 20 pc local population

Understand

The sample of white dwarfs included in the local 20 pc volume documents, fairly accurately, the total production of white dwarfs over roughly 10 Gyr of stellar evolution in this part of the Milky Way Galaxy.

• In this sample, we have been systematically searching for magnetic white dwarfs.
• Here we report the discovery of six new magnetic white dwarfs, with a field strength from a few MG to about 200MG.
• Two of these stars show H lines that are split and polarised by the magnetic field.