Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

White Dwarf Stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Pierre Bergeron

Université de Montréal

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) represents by far the most important development in the last few years in terms of observational data of white dwarfs. Not only has the SDSS more than tripled the number of spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs since the last published version of the McCook & Sion catalog, but it has provided a phenomenal source of homogeneous photometric observations in the ugriz system as well as optical spectroscopy for most objects. I will review how the SDSS has changed our view of the nature and the evolution of white dwarf stars, with a particular emphasis on new, exciting, and exotic discoveries that were made possible due the large number of objects identified in this survey.