The Astrophysical Journal, 751:141 (13pp), 2012 June 1 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/751/2/141 C 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. THE ELM SURVEY. IV. 24 WHITE DWARF MERGER SYSTEMS∗ Mukremin Kilic1, Warren R. Brown2, Carlos Allende Prieto3,4, S. J. Kenyon2, Craig O. Heinke5, M. A. Agueros¨ 6, and S. J. Kleinman7 1 Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, 440 West Brooks Street, Norman, OK 73019, USA;
[email protected] 2 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 3 Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 4 Departamento de Astrof´ısica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 5 Department of Physics, CCIS 4-183, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E1, Canada 6 Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA 7 Gemini Observatory, 670 North A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA Received 2012 January 5; accepted 2012 March 30; published 2012 May 16 ABSTRACT We present new radial velocity and X-ray observations of extremely low mass (ELM, ∼0.2 M) white dwarf (WD) candidates in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 area. We identify seven new binary systems with 1–18 hr orbital periods. Five of the systems will merge due to gravitational wave radiation within 10 Gyr, bringing the total number of merger systems found in the ELM Survey to 24. The ELM Survey has now quintupled the known merger WD population.