The age, life expectancy, and space density of Post Common Envelope Binaries

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Abstract
We present a sample of 30 well observed Post Common Envelope Binaries (PCEBs). Deriving the cooling age of the white dwarfs, we show that the PCEB population is dominated by young systems. Having calculated the orbital evolution of the systems under the assumption of two different prescriptions for the angular momentum loss, we find that most of the systems have not yet completed a significant fraction of their PCEB life time. We therefore predict the existence of a large population of old PCEBs containing cold white dwarfs (T_eff4h) CV, and a significant fraction of the systems will start mass transfer in the period gap. Having estimated the distances of the PCEBs in the sample, we derive a space density of ~6-30x1e-6 [pc-3], depending on the assumed angular momentum loss prescription. Taking into account the evolutionary time scales we compute a lower limit for the CV space density, predicted by the currently known PCEB population of ~10 x 1e-5 [pc-3]. Finally, we discuss possible observational selection effects and conclude that the observed PCEB population is probably highly incomplete.

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