The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XXVIII. Characterization of
  the Galactic White Dwarf Population
  We use three different techniques to identify hundreds of white dwarf (WD)
candidates in the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) based on
photometry from the NGVS and GUViCS, and proper motions derived from the NGVS
and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Photometric distances for these
candidates are calculated using theoretical color-absolute magnitude relations
while effective temperatures are measured by fitting their spectral energy
distributions. Disk and halo WD candidates are separated using a tangential
velocity cut of 200 km~s$^{-1}$ in a reduced proper motion diagram, which leads
to a sample of six halo WD candidates. Cooling ages, calculated for an assumed
WD mass of 0.6$M_{\odot}$, range between 60 Myr and 6 Gyr, although these
estimates depend sensitively on the adopted mass. Luminosity functions for the
disk and halo subsamples are constructed and compared to previous results from
the SDSS and SuperCOSMOS survey. We compute a number density of (2.81 $\pm$
0.52) $\times 10^{-3}$~pc$^{-3}$ for the disk WD population--- consistent with
previous measurements. We find (7.85 $\pm$ 4.55) $\times 10^{-6}$~pc$^{-3}$ for
the halo, or 0.3\% of the disk. Observed stellar counts are also compared to
predictions made by the TRILEGAL and Besan\c{c}on stellar population synthesis
models. The comparison suggests that the TRILEGAL model overpredicts the total
number of WDs. The WD counts predicted by the Besan\c{c}on model agree with the
observations, although a discrepancy arises when comparing the predicted and
observed halo WD populations; the difference is likely due to the WD masses in
the adopted model halo.
