Evolved stars in galactic plane surveys

Abstract

For the first time in history the entire Galactic Plane is digitally mapped from La Palma and Chile by the European Galactic Plane surveys EGAPS (UVEX, IPHAS and VPHAS+, see http://www.uvexsurvey.org http://www.iphas.org and http://www.vphasplus.org). The complete Galactic plane (3600 square degrees) is imaged in optical colours (U,g,r,i,Halpha and HeI5875) down to 21st magnitude using the INT and VST telescopes. This will eventually result into a multi-colour mosaic and a catalogue with more than a billion of stars. In this thesis the populations of evolved stars (white dwarfs, compact binaries and other UV-excess sources) in the data of the "UV-Excess Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (UVEX)" are studied. From the first 211 square degrees of UVEX data, the bluest stars are automatically selected as UV-excess sources, spectroscopic follow-up of UV-excess objects is obtained, a DA white dwarfs space number density and birth rate is derived, and UV-excess sources with an infrared-excess are investigated. (see also Verbeek et al., 2012; Verbeek et al., 2013; Groot et al., 2009)