We determine the possible masses and radii of the progenitors of white dwarfs in binaries from fits to detailed stellar evolution models and use these to reconstruct the mass-transfer phase in which the white dwarf was formed. We confirm the earlier finding that in the first phase of mass transfer in the binary evolution leading to a close pair of white dwarfs, the standard common-envelope formalism based on energy balance in the system, does not work. A formalism based on angular momentum balance can explain the observations. We extend our analysis to all close binaries with at least one white dwarf component. Comparing the two, we show that the formalism based on angular momentum balance can explain all observations at least as well as the energy formalism.

We report on first results of computing synthetic spectra from H/He-poor accretion disks in ultracompact LMXBs. We aim at the determination of the chemical composition of the very low-mass donor star, which is the core of a former C/O white dwarf. The abundance analysis allows to draw conclusions on gravitational settling in WDs which is an important process affecting cooling times and pulsational g-mode periods.

We report results of Echelle and B&Ch spectroscopic observations of the emission-line object FBS 0022-021 that were obtained at SPM Observatory, Mexico. We analyze the emission-line spectra along with available optical and IR data. The Fell-rich spectrum of the object closely resembles that of the peculiar binary system η car. The discussion of the physical conditions leading to such spectrum and the nature of this peculiar object are presented.

We report on the current status of radial velocity surveys for white dwarf binaries (double degenerates DDs) including SPY (ESO Supernovae la progenitor survey) recently carried out at the VLT. A large sample of DD will allow us to put strong constraints on the phases of close binary evolution of the progenitor systems and to perform an observational test of the DD scenario for Supernovae of type Ia.