The Gaia white dwarf revolution

This review highlights the role of the \textit{Gaia} space mission in transforming white dwarf research. These stellar remnants constitute 5-7\% of the local stellar population in volume, yet before \textit{Gaia} the lack of trigonometric parallaxes hindered their identification. The mission's Data Release 2 in 2018 provided the first unbiased colour-absolute magnitude diagram of the local stellar population, identifying 260\,000 white dwarfs, with the number later increasing to over 355\,000 in Data Release 3. Since then, more than 400 white dwarf studies have made critical use of \textit{Gaia} data, establishing it as a fundamental resource for white dwarf identification, fundamental parameter determination and more recently spectral type characterisation. The review underscores the routine reliance on \textit{Gaia} parallaxes and extensive use of its photometry in white dwarf surveys. We also discuss recent discoveries firmly grounded \textit{Gaia} data, including white dwarf mergers, exotic compact binaries and evolved planetary systems.