Double white dwarf mergers as progenitors of long-period transients.
MALHEIRO, Manuel; BORGES, Sarah Villanova; COELHO, Jaziel Goulart; KIANFAR, Khashayar; LOBATO, Ronaldo Vieira; OTONIEL, Edson; HERNANDEZ, Jorge Armando Rueda; SOUSA, Manoel Felipe; WEBER, Fridolin.
MALHEIRO, Manuel; BORGES, Sarah Villanova; COELHO, Jaziel Goulart; KIANFAR, Khashayar; LOBATO, Ronaldo Vieira; OTONIEL, Edson; HERNANDEZ, Jorge Armando Rueda; SOUSA, Manoel Felipe; WEBER, Fridolin.
Abstract: There is an ongoing discussion in the literature on the nature of long-period transients (LPTs), radio-emitting sources with periods ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of seconds. Although some of these objects have been identified as white dwarf (WD) + M-dwarf binaries, this description currently does not fit the entire class. An example is GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3 (hereafter GLEAM-X J1627-5235), with a period of 1091 s, for which the lack of an optical counterpart disfavors the presence of such a binary system. In this case, GLEAM-X J1627-5235 could be interpreted as an isolated, massive, fast-rotating, and highly magnetized ( ~109 G) WD pulsar. Its properties are consistent with a carbon-oxygen WD of mass ~1.3 M and radius ~2500 km, possibly supported by small-scale multipolar magnetosphere structures that keep it above the death line for WD-pulsars. We assess a double WD merger origin, modeling the post-merger rotational evolution under accretion, propeller, and magnetic braking torques. We find rotational age of ~572 Myr for GLEAM-X J1627-5235, i.e., the post-merger time required to reach its observed period. This result is consistent with current optical upper limits for GLEAM-X J1627-5235 and support the WD pulsar interpretation for this source. We also discuss how the same model can apply to other LPTs.
@article={003297258,author = {MALHEIRO, Manuel; BORGES, Sarah Villanova; COELHO, Jaziel Goulart; KIANFAR, Khashayar; LOBATO, Ronaldo Vieira; OTONIEL, Edson; HERNANDEZ, Jorge Armando Rueda; SOUSA, Manoel Felipe; WEBER, Fridolin.},title={Double white dwarf mergers as progenitors of long-period transients},journal={Journal of High Energy Astrophysics},note={v. 53, p. 100593-1-100593-12 + supporting information},year={2026}}