A photometric and spectroscopic search for white dwarfs in the young open cluster IC 2602 A UBV photographic survey of the young open cluster IC 2602 has beencarried out with the aim of finding white dwarf remnants in the cluster.Approximately equal numbers of white dwarfs and blue subdwarfs have beendetected and observed spectroscopically; none of the white dwarfsappears to have a common evolutionary origin with the20-million-year-old cluster. The relatively high number of hot subdwarfsin the field and its implications for similar photometric surveys isdiscussed.
