{
  "abstract": "Short-period binaries containing white dwarfs or hot subdwarfs are among the strongest Galactic sources for millihertz gravitational-wave (GW) observatories, but the confirmed sample remains small. Combining Gaia DR3 astrometry and photometry with ZTF DR23 light curves—through a Gaia selection calibrated against known systems, ZTF period searches, and machine learning morphology ranking—we assemble a catalog of 147 short-period (10.34–106.46 minutes) blue compact-binary candidates, 111 of them without a previous compact-binary classification. DESI DR1, GALEX, and AllWISE data reveal an intrinsically heterogeneous sample: on the Gaia color–magnitude diagram it comprises 52 white-dwarf-locus, 69 hot-subdwarf-region, and 26 intermediate sources, and among the 26 members with DESI spectra only about one-third lie on the white-dwarf cooling sequence, the rest being more luminous blue stars whose low-resolution spectra resemble white dwarfs. We identify a prioritized set of new short-period white-dwarf-locus candidates for time-resolved follow-up, including 10 with periods below 40 minutes and none with an existing radial-velocity series. Under fiducial binary assumptions, 17 newly identified white-dwarf-locus candidates would exceed the adopted LISA threshold, led by a 37 pc white dwarf; no candidate has a measured chirp mass, and with the signal-to-noise ratio scaling as M c 5 / 3 the count is 9 for M c = 0.15 M ⊙ , 17 for the adopted 0.3 M ⊙ , and 21 for 0.6 M ⊙ , in each case assuming the modulation is orbital. We show, however, that for the compact majority of the white-dwarf-locus sample the observed modulation amplitudes exceed any possible ellipsoidal signal by 3 to 5 orders of magnitude, so a rotating magnetic or chemically inhomogeneous single white dwarf is a competing interpretation that ZTF photometry alone cannot exclude; the catalog contains at least one confirmed case. We release the full 147-source catalog with periods, Gaia and spectroscopic classifications, harmonic and ellipsoidal diagnostics, and supplementary tables of fiducial GW estimates and ultraviolet–infrared photometry.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Sun Yat-sen University",
    "Anhui Science and Technology University",
    "Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jiamao Lin",
      "orcid": "0009-0008-9942-620X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Liangliang Ren",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1428-4003"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yilong Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Bo Ma",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0378-2023"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Di-Chang Chen",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0707-3213"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Zi-Heng Yu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sen Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Shun-Jia Huang",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7112-759X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yi-Ming Hu",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7869-0174"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Chengyuan Li",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3084-5157"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6yp6mf405h9qn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7d",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6yp6mf405h9qn",
  "issns": [
    "0004-637X",
    "1538-4357"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7d",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7203929877",
  "pdf_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7d/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-12",
  "publisher": "American Astronomical Society",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6yp6mf405h9qn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
      "native_id": "10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7d",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7d"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "openalex:3103|Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies",
      "subfield": "stellar"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A Systematic Gaia–ZTF Search for Short-period Blue Compact-binary Candidates",
  "title_text": "A Systematic Gaia–ZTF Search for Short-period Blue Compact-binary Candidates",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6yp6mf405h9qn",
  "venue": "The Astrophysical Journal",
  "versions": []
}