Studying compact white dwarf binaries in our Galaxy

Individual stars end their lives in one of three states:

White dwarf

- degenerate electron matter

- < 1 M_☉

- 10,000 km radius (earth size)

Neutron star

- degenerate nuclear matter

- ~ 1.5 M_☉

- 20 km radius

Black hole

- > 2 M_☉

Some binary star systems evolve into two white dwarfs that orbit each other at a vey close distance.

There are > 10,000 individual systems which will be observable by LISA