scholarly journals Discovery of Non-Radial Pulsations in the White Dwarf Primary of a Cataclysmic Variable Star

1998 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 321-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Warner ◽  
Liza Van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
Surface Layer ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
High Probability ◽  
Binary Systems ◽  
Variable Star ◽  
Cataclysmic Variable ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Rotation Periods ◽  
Radial Pulsations

Non-radial pulsations in isolated white dwarfs have been known for 25 years and it has been shown that the hydrogen-rich (DA) white dwarfs have a high probability of pulsating if they lie in the instability strip with effective temperature between 11500 and 13200 K - the ZZ Ceti stars (e.g. Kepler and Nelan 1993). Analysing techniques developed for such stars allow derivation of masses, luminosities, rotation periods, hydrogen surface layer masses and other properties (e.g. Kepler and Bradley 1995). A number of binary systems are known in which the primary is a white dwarf; dominant in this class are the cataclysmic variable (CV) stars. Until now no CV primary has been found to have non-radial pulsations.

scholarly journals Optical detection of the rapidly spinning white dwarf in V1460 Her

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Pelisoli ◽  
R T Marsh ◽  
R P Ashley ◽  
Pasi Hakala ◽  
A Aungwerojwit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Binary Systems ◽  
Hubble Space Telescope ◽  
Cataclysmic Variable ◽  
Optical Photometry ◽  
Arrival Times ◽  
Precise Ephemeris ◽  
History Of

Abstract Accreting magnetic white dwarfs offer an opportunity to understand the interplay between spin-up and spin-down torques in binary systems. Monitoring of the white dwarf spin may reveal whether the white dwarf spin is currently in a state of near-equilibrium, or of uni-directional evolution towards longer or shorter periods, reflecting the recent history of the system and providing constraints for evolutionary models. This makes the monitoring of the spin history of magnetic white dwarfs of high interest. In this paper we report the results of a campaign of follow-up optical photometry to detect and track the 39 sec white dwarf spin pulses recently discovered in Hubble Space Telescope data of the cataclysmic variable V1460 Her. We find the spin pulsations to be present in g-band photometry at a typical amplitude of 0.4 per cent. Under favourable observing conditions, the spin signal is detectable using 2-meter class telescopes. We measured pulse-arrival times for all our observations, which allowed us to derive a precise ephemeris for the white dwarf spin. We have also derived an orbital modulation correction that can be applied to the measurements. With our limited baseline of just over four years, we detect no evidence yet for spin-up or spin-down of the white dwarf, obtaining a lower limit of $|P/\dot{P}| > 4\times 10^{7}$ years, which is already 4 to 8 times longer than the timescales measured in two other cataclysmic variable systems containing rapidly rotating white dwarfs, AE Aqr and AR Sco.

scholarly journals The Observational Properties of the ZZ Ceti Stars

1979 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 343-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward L. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Light Curve ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Theoretical Investigations ◽  
Considerable Body ◽  
Coherent Picture ◽  
Radial Pulsations

The ZZ Ceti stars are the pulsating white dwarfs lying within a narrow instability strip, extending in temperature from 13,500 to 10,500 K, on the white dwarf cooling sequence. That white dwarfs should be pulsationally unstable cannot be considered surprising, since theoretical investigations of white dwarf pulsations began at least as early as 1949 (Sauvenier-Goffin 1949). As the predicted pulsation periods demonstrate, however, the nature of the pulsations was not correctly foreseen. With very few exceptions (e.g. Harper and Rose 1970) the early investigations assumed that the most likely pulsations to be excited were radial pulsations. Thus, the calculated periods were quite short, typically 2-10 seconds. The first of the pulsating white dwarfs actually to be observed was HL Tau-76 (Landolt 1968). A portion of its light curve is shown in Figure 1. The typical interval between successive pulses is about 750 seconds, not 2-10 seconds. This is a serious discrepancy, and one that exists for all of the ZZ Ceti stars discovered since HL Tau-76. Clearly, then, the observational data requires us to modify our understanding of pulsating white dwarfs. A considerable body of this observational data now exists. The purpose of the present paper is to present the data, and to show that it provides a reasonably coherent picture of the pulsating white dwarfs.

scholarly journals The Effects of Time Dependant Convection on White Dwarf Radial Pulsations

1989 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 115-118
Author(s):  
S. Starrfield ◽  
A. N. Cox
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Pure Hydrogen ◽  
Helium Surface ◽  
Surface Layers ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Blue Edge ◽  
Pure Helium ◽  
Radial Pulsations

AbstractWe have investigated the effects of relaxing the normal assumption of frozen in convection on studies of radial instabilities in 0.6M⊙ carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with either pure hydrogen layers overlying pure helium layers or 0.6M⊙ carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with pure helium surface layers. In this paper we assume that convection can adjust to the pulsation at a rate determined by the time scale of a convective eddy. Using this assumption in our analysis stabilizes most of the modes in both the DA and DB radial instability strips. We also find that the blue edge of the DA radial instability strip, assuming frozen in convection, is between 12,0O0K and 13,000K. The blue edge for the DB radial instability strip (frozen in convection) is between 32,000K and 33,000K.

scholarly journals Hot DQ white dwarfs: a pulsational test of the mixing scenario for their formation

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (H15) ◽  
pp. 370-370
Author(s):  
A. Romero ◽  
A. H. Córsico ◽  
L. G. Althaus ◽  
E. García-Berro
Keyword(s):  
Stability Analysis ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Dwarf Stars ◽  
Photometric Variability ◽  
New Class ◽  
White Dwarf Stars ◽  
Born Again

Hot DQ white dwarfs constitute a new class of white dwarf stars, uncovered recently within the framework of SDSS project. There exist nine of them, out of a total of several thousands white dwarfs spectroscopically identified. Recently, three hot DQ white dwarfs have been reported to exhibit photometric variability with periods compatible with pulsation g-modes. In this contribution, we presented the results of a non-adiabatic pulsation analysis of the recently discovered carbon-rich hot DQ white dwarf stars. Our study relies on the full evolutionary models of hot DQ white dwarfs recently developed by Althaus et al. (2009), that consistently cover the whole evolution from the born-again stage to the white dwarf cooling track. Specifically, we performed a stability analysis on white dwarf models from stages before the blue edge of the DBV instability strip (Teff ≈ 30000 K) until the domain of the hot DQ white dwarfs (18000-24000 K), including the transition DB→hot DQ white dwarf. We explore evolutionary models with M*= 0.585M⊙ and M* = 0.87M⊙, and two values of thickness of the He-rich envelope (MHe = 2 × 10−7M* and MHe = 10−8M*).

scholarly journals The Intermediate Polars

1983 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
Brian Warner
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
Variable Star ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Cataclysmic Variable ◽  
General Role ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Intermediate Polars ◽  
X Ray Binaries

Until 1976, cataclysmic variable star research proceeded with few requirements for the inclusion of magnetic fields in theoretical models. Although models for low-mass X-ray binaries stressed the importance of magnetic fields (Lamb et at. 1973) and there was an increasing number of known magnetic single white dwarfs (Angel 1977), and a magnetised white dwarf had been one of the models proposed to explain the rapid oscillations in DQ Her (Herbst et al. 1974, Katz 1975), there was no anticipation of the more general role that magnetic fields now seem destined to play. The two major reviews of the time (Robinson 1976, Warner 1976) scarcely considered the presence of magnetic fields.

scholarly journals The Search for Close Binary Evolved Stars

1989 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 408-412
Author(s):  
Rex A. Saffer ◽  
James Liebert
Keyword(s):  
Binary System ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Binary Systems ◽  
Close Binary ◽  
Brown Dwarf ◽  
Null Results ◽  
Spectroscopic Observations ◽  
Evolved Stars ◽  
Short Period

AbstractWe report on a search for short-period binary systems composed of pairs of evolved stars. The search is being carried out concurrently with a program to characterize the kinematical properties of two different samples of stars. Each sample has produced one close binary candidate for which further spectroscopic observations are planned. We also recapitulate the discovery of a close detached binary system composed of two cool DA white dwarfs, and we discuss the null results of Hα observations of the suspected white dwarf/brown dwarf system G 29–38.

scholarly journals The Effective Temperature Distribution Function of Cataclysmic Variable White Dwarfs

1987 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 47-51
Author(s):  
E.M. Sion
Keyword(s):  
Distribution Function ◽  
Temperature Distribution ◽  
Orbital Period ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Cataclysmic Variables ◽  
Cataclysmic Variable ◽  
Term Evolution ◽  
Effective Temperatures

AbstractWith the recent detection of direct white dwarf photospheric radiation from certain cataclysmic variables in quiescent (low accretion) states, important implications and clues about the nature and long-term evolution of cataclysmic variables can emerge from an analysis of their physical properties. Detection of the underlying white dwarfs has led to a preliminary empirical CV white dwarf temperature distribution function and, in a few cases, the first detailed look at a freshly accreted while dwarf photosphere. The effective temperatures of CV white dwarfs plotted versus orbital period for each type of CV appears to reveal a tendency for the cooler white dwarf primaries to reside in the shorter period systems. Possible implications are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Nucleosynthesis During Nova Explosions and Grain Formations in Ejected Envelopes

1979 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 533-533
Author(s):  
Masayuki Y. Fujimoto
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Binary Systems ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
Close Binary ◽  
Close Binary Systems

Recent observations have revealed the existence of infrared brightening in some nova explosions, and its absence in others. These infrared excesses are ascribed to thermal emission from grains which are considered to consist of graphite. Such nova explosions are widely accepted to be triggered by hydrogen shell-flashes on the surface of white dwarfs which accrete matter in close binary systems. As for the hydrogen shell-flash, recently, a general theory applicable even to the case of finite amplitude has been developed. According to this theory, the progress of a shell-flash is determined only by the mass of the white dwarf MWD and the mass of the accreted hydrogen-rich envelope ΔMH.

scholarly journals White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Binaries

1979 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 417-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Warner
Keyword(s):  
Direct Measurement ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
Proper Motion ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Binary Systems ◽  
Fundamental Property ◽  
Wide Binary ◽  
Trigonometric Parallax ◽  
Select Group ◽  
Cataclysmic Binaries

For isolated stars, identification as a white dwarf may be effected in several ways. The fundamental property of abnormally low luminosity can be detected through direct measurement of trigonometric parallax or indirectly through large proper motion (accompanied by appropriate photometric properties). The presence of greatly pressure broadened absorption lines is another unambiguous criterion. Rapid light oscillations of the kind reviewed by Robinson are another hallmark of a select group of white dwarfs. Any or all of these criteria may be used to classify a star as a white dwarf and in general can be applied to members of wide binary systems.

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