A First Look at White Dwarf - M Dwarf Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

We have identified 109 White Dwarf (WD) - M dwarf pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with g < 20th magnitude. For each system we determined the temperature of the WD primary and the spectral type of the M dwarf secondary. Using H-alpha emission as a proxy for the chromospheric activity level of the M dwarf, we investigated correlations between the activity level and properties of the system. Compared with field M dwarfs (Hawley et al. 1996), we see a slightly higher active fraction of early-type stars, with activity levels similar to the field. We have conducted followup observations at the ARC 3.5m telescope to obtain radial velocity information and to search for short period binaries, which may be on the verge of interacting. We report on one system with a 4.1 hour period, and several additional systems with significant velocity variations.