Characterizing Accreting Double White Dwarf Binaries with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna and Gaia

摘要

We demonstrate a method to fully characterize mass-transferring double white dwarf (DWD) systems with a helium-rich (He) white dwarf (WD) donor based on the mass-radius (M-R) relationship for He WDs. Using a simulated Galactic population of DWDs, we show that donor and accretor masses can be inferred for up to ~60 systems observed by both Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Gaia. Half of these systems will have mass constraints ? M_D ?? 0.2 M_⊙ and ? M_A ?? 2.3 M_⊙. We also show how the orbital frequency evolution due to astrophysical processes and gravitational radiation can be decoupled from the total orbital frequency evolution for up to ~50 of these systems.