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“White Dwarf Binaries” Dr. Gijs Roelofs Harvard/Smithsonian CfA |
| Uncertainties in binary stellar evolution as yet hamper our knowledge of the Galactic population of double white dwarf binaries. Binary white dwarfs form by far the largest class of ultracompact binaries and, consequently, our understanding of things like the Galactic `foreground' gravitational-wave signal, and the potential for double-degenerate binaries to contribute to the rate of supernova-Ia- like explosions, is still rather poor. In this talk I will highlight some of the open questions, as well as some of our efforts to address these questions observationally. |