On the separations of common proper motion binaries containing white dwarfs

It is expected, on the basis of proper motion and estimated colors, that over 500 known common proper motion binaries (CPMBs) contain at least one white dwarf (WD) component, usually paired with a late type main sequence (MS) star. This paper examines 210 probable MS + MS and 26 probable WD + MS pairs from the LDS catalog to determine whether significant orbital expansion occurred as a consequence of the post-MS mass loss expected to accompany the formation of WDs in the CPMBs. It was found that, in the WD + MS pairs, the physical separation is nearly twice that in the MS + MS pairs.