My research

My main research interest is white dwarfs (WDs) and their immediate surroundings, which basically means that I am looking for stuff around WDs. The fact that more than 97% of all stars, our Sun included, end their lives as WDs, makes them an interesting research subject. The immediate surroundings of WDs are key to our understanding of a number of puzzles. Observations of WDs can reveal the presence of stellar, substellar, and stellar-remnant companions, planets, dust, atmospheric heavy elements, and planetary debris, each of relevance to several important questions. In my research I acquire and analyze new observational data, as well as publicly available archival data, in order to provide clues and maybe even answers to some of these questions. Scroll down to read about some of the things we have found, related and unrelated to WDs.

White dwarfs in binary systems

White dwarfs in binary systems

Binary systems consisting of two WDs are important in a broad range of astrophysical contexts, from stellar evolution, through Type-Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitors, to sources of gravitational waves...

Planets and debris around white dwarfs

Planets and debris around white dwarfs

The remains of the pre-WD-phase solar systems are revealed in the form of heavy element ‘pollution’ in WD atmospheres, excess emission from dust discs, and—only recently—in transits of planetary debris...