No abstract

The age-metallicity relation is a fundamental tool for constraining the chemical evolution of the Galactic disc. In this work we analyse the observational properties of this relation using binary stars that have not interacted consisting of a white dwarf –from which we can derive the total age of the system– and a main sequence star –from which we can derive the metallicity as traced by the [Fe/H] abundances. Our sample consists of 46 widely separated, but unresolved spectroscopic binaries identified within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and 189 white dwarf plus main sequence common proper motion pairs identified within the second data release of Gaia. This is currently the largest white dwarf sample for which the metallicity of their progenitors have been determined. We find a flat age-metallicity relation displaying a scatter of [Fe/H] abundances of approximately ±0.5 dex around the solar metallicity at all ages. This independently confirms the lack of correlation between age and metallicity in the solar neighbourhood that is found in previous studies focused on analysing single main sequence stars and open clusters.

Aims. We estimated the spectral evolution of white dwarfs with effective temperature using the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) second data release (DR2), which provides 12 photometric optical passbands over 2176 deg2. Methods. We analyzed 5926 white dwarfs with r ≤ 19.5 mag in common between a white dwarf catalog defined from Gaia EDR3 and J-PLUS DR2. We performed a Bayesian analysis by comparing the observed J-PLUS photometry with theoretical models of hydrogen- and helium-dominated atmospheres. We estimated the probability distribution functions for effective temperature (Teff), surface gravity, parallax, and composition; and the probability of having a H-dominated atmosphere (pH) for each source. We applied a prior in parallax, using Gaia EDR3 measurements as a reference, and derived a self-consistent prior for the atmospheric composition as a function of Teff. Results. We described the fraction of white dwarfs with a He-dominated atmosphere (fHe) with a linear function of the effective temperature at 5000 < Teff < 30 000 K. We find fHe = 0.24 ± 0.01 at Teff = 10 000 K, a change rate along the cooling sequence of 0.14 ± 0.02 per 10 kK, and a minimum He-dominated fraction of 0.08 ± 0.02 at the high-temperature end. We tested the obtained pH by comparison with spectroscopic classifications, finding that it is reliable. We estimated the mass distribution for the 351 sources with distance d < 100 pc, mass M > 0.45 M⊙, and Teff > 6000 K. The result for H-dominated white dwarfs agrees with previous studies, with a dominant M = 0.59 M⊙ peak and the presence of an excess at M ∼ 0.8 M⊙. This high-mass excess is absent in the He-dominated distribution, which presents a single peak. Conclusions. The J-PLUS optical data provide a reliable statistical classification of white dwarfs into H- and He-dominated atmospheres. We find a 21 ± 3% increase in the fraction of He-dominated white dwarfs from Teff = 20 000 K to Teff = 5000 K.