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White Dwarf Natal Kicks as Velocity-Space Random Walks. II. Binary Stellar Evolution and Observational Kick Constraints

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Wide binaries containing white dwarfs (WDs) provide a pathway to exploring post-main-sequence (MS) natal kicks associated with asymmetric mass loss. In this work, we develop a binary population synthesis model that involves episodic mass loss and velocity kicks during the thermally-pulsing asymptotic-giant-branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution, when mass loss is expected to be most significant. We compare our synthesized populations against the Gaia DR2 and DR3 data for wide WD-MS and WD-WD binaries, varying the number, strength, and directionality of TP-AGB kicks. We find that the observed separation distribution can constrain the kick strength, but it alone is insufficient to also constrain the kick number and dimensionality. We therefore additionally constrain our models using the observed eccentricity distributions. Models where mass loss induces a random walk in the star's velocity are most consistent with observed eccentricity constraints for WD-MS binaries. No models are found to agree with the WD-WD eccentricity constraint. Our results suggest that at least 10 randomly directed kicks take place during the TP-AGB phase, leading to a cumulative root-mean-square kick velocity of approximately 0.7 km/s. These findings constrain the nature of WD natal kicks, connecting the orbital distributions of evolved wide binaries to asymmetric mass loss during the final stages of stellar evolution.
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2609.20941
Institutions: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado Boulder, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Côte d'Azur, Lagrange Laboratory, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
Language: English
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Colorado State University, University of Colorado Boulder, High Performance Research Computing, Texas A and M University, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Astrophysics Division
Awards: G1453181110, G1693976111, Track 4: Advanced CI Coordination Ecosystem: Monitoring and Measurement Services, G2379153913, G2815302120, G3339971651, G3562386289, Track 1: ACCESS Resource Allocations Marketplace and Platform Services (RAMPS), G4010157413, G4248962021, ACO: An Open CI Ecosystem to Advance Scientific Discovery (OpenCI), Track 3: COre National Ecosystem for CyberinfrasTructure (CONECT), G5367127336, G5424111711, G5464919783, G6128126499, CC* Compute: HPC Services for the Colorado State University System, G7115838204, G8067353062, Track 2: Customized Multi-tier Assistance, Training, and Computational Help (MATCH) for End User ACCESS to CI
OpenAlex ID: W7213863039
Cites: 52
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10