Manuel Pichardo Marcano (UNAM-IA)

Anjali Yelikar (Vanderbilt University)

Karan Jani (Vanderbilt University)

Massive Double White Dwarf Binary Mergers from the Moon: Extending the Reach of Multi-messenger Astrophysics

See also recent work by Benetti et al.  (2025)

Massive Double White Dwarf Binary Mergers from the Moon Recent Papers

Remanentes Estelares

Enana Blanca

Enana Blanca

sol

sol

Tierra

Williamina Fleming:

Descubridora de las enanas blancas

Enanas Blancas

Sirius

Sirius A y Sirius B

NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI), and M. Barstow (University of Leicester).

Sirius A

Estrella "Normal"

Sirius B

Enana Blanca

• A 8.6 años luz
• Enana Blanca más cercana

Sirius A y Sirius B

• Período Orbital (P_orb) de 50 años
• Frequencia Orbital (1/P_orb)
  • 1/50 años = 10^-9 Hz = 1 nHz

Separación 300 millones de km

El Sol a Urano (20 UA)

White Dwarfs

Caltech/NASA

Gil-Pons+2013

Caiazzo+2021

0.3 to < 1.25 M⊙

< 1.08 to 1.4 M⊙

Type Ia SN

Accretion-induced collapse (AIC)

• Degenerate Objects:
  • Maximum Mass = 1.4 M⊙
• Type Ia SN progenitors
• Neutron Stars Progenitors

~2000 km

1.33 M☉ - 1.37 M☉

Williamina Fleming:

Descubridora de las enanas blancas

Enanas Blancas

Sirius

Sirius A y Sirius B

NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI), and M. Barstow (University of Leicester).

Sirius A

Estrella "Normal"

Sirius B

Enana Blanca

• A 8.6 años luz
• Enana Blanca más cercana

Sirius A y Sirius B

• Período Orbital (P_orb) de 50 años
• Frequencia Orbital (1/P_orb)
  • 1/50 años = 10^-9 Hz = 1 nHz

Separación 300 millones de km

El Sol a Urano (20 UA)

Binarias de enanas blancas

Variable Cataclísmica

Mark A. Garlick

Enana Blanca

Estrella 'normal'

• Período Orbital (P_orb) de 10 horas
• Freq. Orbital (1/P_orb)
  • 1/10 hr = 10^-5Hz

Separación de 3 R☉

2 millones de km

Binarias de Enanas Blancas

NASA

Separación de Miles de Km

• Período Orbital (P_orb) de Segundos
• Freq. Orbital (1/P_orb)
  • 1/2 sec = 0.5 Hz

Ondas Gravitacionales

• Perturbaciones en el espacio-tiempo
• Freq. Orbital (1/P_orb)
  • 1/2 sec = 0.5 Hz
  • Freq_{ondas grav} = 2 x Freq_{ondas grav} = 1 Hz

Merging Double WD Binaries

Caltech/NASA

• Gravitational Wave Sources
• Multi-messenger sources
• Porb
  • ~15 seconds to merge
• fgrav = 2 x forb
  • ~0.1 Hz to 1 Hz

Type Ia Supernova

• Chandrasekhar Mass (Mch = 1.4M⊙)
• Double-degenerate vs Single degenerate channel
• Cosmological standard candles
  • Hubble Tension
•  Heavy-element factories

R. Sankrit and W. Blair (JHU) et al., ESA, NASA

Caltech/NASA

Accretion-induced Collapse

• Formation of Neutron Stars (e.g. Nomoto et al. 1979)
• Important in GCs (Grindlay et al. 1988)
• Predicted EM:
  • Gamma Rays (e.g. Dar et al. 1992)
  • Radio (e.g. Piro et al. 2013)
  • Optical (e.g. Sousa et al. 2023, Metzger et al. 2009)

NASA, ESA, and J. Anderson (STScI)

WD

NS

Lunar Gravitational Wave Observatories

• The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) (Parameswaran et al. 2024)
  • Seismometer (Lunar-SEI)
• Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna (LILA) (Jani et al. 2025):
  • LIGO-like suspension system (Lunar-SUS)

Why go to the Moon?

Methods

• Evolve WDs  with masses 1. to 1.4 M⊙
• 1 years before merging:
  • Roche-lobe: Lower Mass Fills Roche Lobe
  • Contact: a = R1+R2
• Calculate SNR for LGWA and Gravitational-Wave Lunar Observatory for Cosmology (GLOC) as a LILA proxy

Wagg et al. (2022)

Dupletsa et al. (2023)

GW Strain

Pichardo Marcano et al. (2025)

GW

Detection Distance

Pichardo Marcano et al. (2025)

Detection Distance

Pichardo Marcano et al. (2025)

Early Alert at 10 Mpc

Pichardo Marcano et al. (2025)

Rates

• Type Ia SN
  • 1 yr−1 in 10 Mpc (Kinugawa et al. 2022, Ajith et al. 2025)
  • Massive pairs (ONe+ONe): 1 yr−1 for ∼100 Mpc
• AIC rates (Liu et al. 2020,Metzger et al. 2009):
  • Best estimates: ~1 yr−1 at 30 Mpc
  • Massive pairs (ONe+ONe): ~1 yr−1 events at 300 Mpc
• Type Ia and AIC rates in Globular Clusters (Kremer et al. (2021a,b):
  • Type Ia:  10-5 yr−1
  • AIC: 7 × 10−8 yr−1 per core-collapsed GCs

Constraint Common envelope Evolution

Multi-messenger and Multi-band Events

GWs from the Moon:

• WDs merger at Mpc distances
  • Weeks of Early Alert
• LIGO source: Rapidly spinning NS
• WDs + PBHs (Yamamoto et al. 2024)

Extra

Detection Metrics

Rates

Old Slides

Multi-messenger and Multi-band Events

• LSST could see a few AIC events per year (Metzger et al. 2009)
  • Possible FRBs
• Super-Chandrasekhar SN?
• LIGO source: Rapidly spinning NS
• WDs + BHs (Yamamoto et al. 2024)

GWs from the Moon:

GWs from the Moon

• GW freq. between LISA and LIGO
• Massive WDs merger at Mpc distances
  • Weeks of Early Alert
  • Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
• WDs + NS
• WDs + Primordial BHs