Observation of a Variable, ZZ Ceti White Dwarf: GD154

1993 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 201-204
Author(s):  
B. Pfeiffer ◽  
G. Vauclair ◽  
N. Dolez ◽  
M. Chevreton ◽  
J. R. Fremy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Nonlinear Phenomena ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Temperature Range

The ZZ Ceti stars form a class of variable white dwarfs: the hydrogen dominated atmosphere ones, which do pulsate in an instability strip in the effective temperature range 13000K-11500K. We know 22 such ZZ Ceti white dwarfs. Their variations are caused by nonradial g-mode pulsations with periods are in the range 100-1000 seconds.A subsample of the ZZ Ceti stars shows amplitude variations on time scales of the order of one month. These variations could be driven by nonlinear phenomena.

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 Some Properties of Hot, High-Gravity, Pure Helium Atmospheres

1979 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 125-129
Author(s):  
F. Wesemael ◽  
H.M. Van Horn
Keyword(s):  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Model Atmosphere ◽  
Surface Gravity ◽  
High Gravity ◽  
Pure Helium

Model atmosphere analyses of white dwarf spectra have contributed significantly to our understanding of the properties of degenerate stars.: In particular, the pioneering investigations of Bues (1970), Strittmatter and Wickramasinghe (1971) and Shipman (1972) have provided the first reliable determinations of the effective temperature and surface gravity of these objects (see Shipman 1979 and Weidemann 1978 for recent results). We now know with certainty that the hydrogen-rich white dwarf sequence extends at least over the range Te ∽ 6000 – 60.000K. In contrast, the hottest identified helium-rich white dwarfs seem to reach Te ~ 25.000K only, a puzzling result since the progenitors of DB white dwarfs should presumably also be helium-rich.

scholarly journals The High Resolution Spectrum of the Pulsating, Pre-White Dwarf Star PG 1159-035 (GW VIR)

1989 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 384-387
Author(s):  
James Liebert ◽  
F. Wesemael ◽  
D. Husfeld ◽  
R. Wehrse ◽  
S. G. Starrfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
High Resolution Spectrum ◽  
Dwarf Star ◽  
Dwarf Stars ◽  
New Class ◽  
White Dwarf Stars ◽  
Nonradial Pulsation

First reported at the IAU Colloquium No. 53 on White Dwarfs (McGraw et al. 1979), PG 1159-035 (GW Vir) is the prototype of a new class of very hot, pulsating, pre-white dwarf stars. It shows complicated, nonradial pulsation modes which have been studied exhaustively, both observationally and theoretically. The effective temperature has been crudely estimated as 100,000 K with log g ~ 7 (Wesemael, Green and Liebert 1985, hereafter WGL).

scholarly journals An Isolated White Dwarf with a 70 s Spin Period

2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. L6
Author(s):  
Mukremin Kilic ◽  
Alekzander Kosakowski ◽  
Adam G. Moss ◽  
P. Bergeron ◽  
Annamarie A. Conly
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
High Speed ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Tangential Velocity ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Instability Strip ◽  
Detailed Model ◽  
Helium Atmosphere ◽  
Spin Period

Abstract We report the discovery of an isolated white dwarf with a spin period of 70 s. We obtained high-speed photometry of three ultramassive white dwarfs within 100 pc and discovered significant variability in one. SDSS J221141.80+113604.4 is a 1.27 M ⊙ (assuming a CO core) magnetic white dwarf that shows 2.9% brightness variations in the BG40 filter with a 70.32 ± 0.04 s period, becoming the fastest spinning isolated white dwarf currently known. A detailed model atmosphere analysis shows that it has a mixed hydrogen and helium atmosphere with a dipole field strength of B d = 15 MG. Given its large mass, fast rotation, strong magnetic field, unusual atmospheric composition, and relatively large tangential velocity for its cooling age, J2211+1136 displays all of the signatures of a double white dwarf merger remnant. Long-term monitoring of the spin evolution of J2211+1136 and other fast-spinning isolated white dwarfs opens a new discovery space for substellar and planetary mass companions around white dwarfs. In addition, the discovery of such fast rotators outside of the ZZ Ceti instability strip suggests that some should also exist within the strip. Hence, some of the monoperiodic variables found within the instability strip may be fast-spinning white dwarfs impersonating ZZ Ceti pulsators.

scholarly journals A New Instability Strip for Hot Degenerates

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 621-626
Author(s):  
Sumner G. Starrfield ◽  
Arthur N. Cox ◽  
Stephen W. Hodson
Keyword(s):  
Energy Distribution ◽  
Light Curve ◽  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
Variable Star ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Photometric Data ◽  
Cooling Curve ◽  
Private Communication ◽  
Instability Strip

A completely new kind of variable star has recently been discovered (McGraw, et. al. 1979). Designated as PG1159-035 (hereafter PG) this star is distinguished not only by the complete lack of hydrogen in its spectrum but also by an effective temperature that exceeds 8 × 104 K (McGraw, private communication). The photometric data show that this star is pulsating with two periods - 539 seconds and 460 seconds and the light curve is very reminiscent of that of a ZZ Ceti variable star (DA white dwarfs pulsating in non-radial modes). However, its spectral characteristics show that it cannot be included in this class since analysis of both optical and IUE spectra show that the major atmospheric constituents are probably helium and carbon and that its surface gravity is considerably lower than 108 cm sec−2 characteristic of a DA white dwarf. Its energy distribution suggests a small amount of reddening and since it is far out of the plane it must be at a distance at least 1 kpc. This estimate is supported by a null proper motion over a 13 year baseline (Luyten 1979, private communication to J Liebert). These data suggest that its luminosity exceeds 10 L⊙. In any case, it would need a luminosity as large as 10 L⊙ to fall on or above the white dwarf cooling curve at Te = 8 × 104 K (Lamb and Van Horn 1975). All of these facts suggest strongly that this star is unique and a new kind of pulsating variable.

scholarly journals Near-infrared variability in dusty white dwarfs: tracing the accretion of planetary material

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 2861-2874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura K Rogers ◽  
Siyi Xu (许偲艺) ◽  
Amy Bonsor ◽  
Simon Hodgkin ◽  
Kate Y L Su ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Infrared Emission ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Infrared Telescope ◽  
Infrared Monitoring ◽  
K Band

ABSTRACT The inwards scattering of planetesimals towards white dwarfs is expected to be a stochastic process with variability on human time-scales. The planetesimals tidally disrupt at the Roche radius, producing dusty debris detectable as excess infrared emission. When sufficiently close to the white dwarf, this debris sublimates and accretes on to the white dwarf and pollutes its atmosphere. Studying this infrared emission around polluted white dwarfs can reveal how this planetary material arrives in their atmospheres. We report a near-infrared monitoring campaign of 34 white dwarfs with infrared excesses with the aim to search for variability in the dust emission. Time series photometry of these white dwarfs from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (Wide Field Camera) in the J-, H-, and K-bands was obtained over baselines of up to 3 yr. We find no statistically significant variation in the dust emission in all three near-infrared bands. Specifically, we can rule out variability at ∼1.3 per cent for the 13 white dwarfs brighter than 16th mag in K-band, and at ∼10 per cent for the 32 white dwarfs brighter than 18th mag over time-scales of 3 yr. Although to date two white dwarfs, SDSS J095904.69−020047.6 and WD 1226+110, have shown K-band variability, in our sample we see no evidence of new K-band variability at these levels. One interpretation is that the tidal disruption events that lead to large variabilities are rare occur on short time-scales, and after a few years the white dwarfs return to being stable in the near-infrared.

scholarly journals Diffusion and Metal Abundances in Hot White Dwarfs Gerard Vauclair

1989 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 176-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gérard Vauclair
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Dwarf Stars ◽  
White Dwarf Stars ◽  
Metal Abundances ◽  
Cool White Dwarfs ◽  
First Time ◽  
Radiative Acceleration

While the efficiency of gravitational settling to produce chemically pure atmospheres in white dwarf stars was outlined for the first time 30 years ago (Schatzman 1958), the competing role of the radiation flux in the hot white dwarfs was considered only 10 years ago (Fontaine and Michaud 1979; Vauclair, Vauclair and Greenstein 1979). At that time, there was more motivation to understand how metals could reappear in the long lived cool non DA white dwarfs, where diffusion time scales are shorter by orders of magnitude than evolutionary time scales. Various processes were invoked to help restore some metal content in the white dwarf atmospheres: convection mixing and dredge up, accretion of interstellar matter. In cool white dwarfs, the radiative acceleration is negligeable in the diffusion process; this is not the case at the hot end of the sequence where radiation may balance gravity. The short lived hot white dwarfs just started to become exciting with the contemporary discoveries that i) some show metallic lines in their spectra, both hydrogen rich and hydrogen poor; ii) some of these are pulsating. In the following years, the number of hot white dwarfs revealing trace abundance of metals has increased, mainly owing to IUE observations.

scholarly journals Central stars of planetary nebulae: The white dwarf connection

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S283) ◽  
pp. 196-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Werner
Keyword(s):  
Iron Deficiency ◽  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Spectral Classification ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Central Stars ◽  
Evolution Sequence

AbstractThis paper is focused on the transition phase between central stars and white dwarfs, i.e. objects in the effective temperature range 100 000 – 200 000 K. We confine our review to hydrogen-deficient stars because the common H-rich objects are subject of the paper by Ziegler et al. in these proceedings. We address the claimed iron-deficiency in PG1159 stars and [WC] central stars. The discovery of new Ne vii and Ne viii lines in PG1159 stars suggests that the identification of O vii and O viii lines that are used for spectral classification of [WCE] stars is wrong. We then present evidence for two distinct post-AGB evolutionary sequences for H-deficient stars based on abundance analyses of the He-dominated O(He) stars and the hot DO white dwarf KPD 0005+5106. Finally, we report on evidence for an H-deficient post-super AGB evolution sequence represented by the hottest known, carbon/oxygen-atmosphere white dwarf H 1504+65 and the recently discovered carbon-atmosphere “hot DQ” white dwarfs.

scholarly journals Progress and Problems in the Study of the Pulsating White Dwarf Stars

1986 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 221-228
Author(s):  
D. E. Winget
Keyword(s):  
Effective Temperature ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Variable Stars ◽  
Compact Stars ◽  
Dwarf Stars ◽  
White Dwarf Stars ◽  
Pulsating Variable Stars ◽  
Constant Radius ◽  
Cooling Phase

We currently know of at least three distinct classes of degenerate pulsating variable stars; they occur with a practically uniform spacing in the log of the effective temperature and span nearly the full sweep of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the H-R diagram. The hottest of these variable stars are the pulsating PG 1159-035 stars. Extremely hot, compact, stars, they appear to be contracting and cooling on their way to becoming white dwarf stars. These proto-white dwarfs have photometric properties similar to the pulsating white dwarf stars, and are reviewed separately in these proceedings by A. N. Cox. The two remaining classes of compact pulsating variables are found in relatively narrow instability strips occupying distinct portions of the white dwarf cooling sequence after the constant radius, purely cooling, phase has been reached. These two classes of variable stars are the topic of this review. In this work I will use the concise notation introduced by Sion et al. (1983) to indicate the two classes of variables: the ZZ Ceti’s, and the pulsating DB white dwarfs, become simply the DAV, and the DBV stars, respectively.

scholarly journals Diffusion Coefficients in Dense Plasmas

1979 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 192-196
Author(s):  
G. Fontaine ◽  
G. Michaud
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
Diffusion Coefficients ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Diffusion Time ◽  
Heavy Elements ◽  
Spectral Evolution ◽  
Dense Plasmas ◽  
Quantitative Estimates

It has been known for some time (Schatzman 1958) that diffusion could play an important role in the spectral evolution of white dwarfs. However, it is only recently that quantitative estimates have become available, making use of detailed envelope models (Fontaine and Michaud 1979, hereafter referred to as FM; Vauclair, Vauclair, and Greenstein 1979; Alcock and Illarionov 1979). These studies suggest that the observed monoelemental character of white dwarf spectra can qualitatively be explained in terms of the diffusion model. Moreover, it appears that the diffusion time scales are so short compared to evolutionary times that competing mechanisms, such as accretion, must be invoked to explain the small but measurable abundances of heavy elements in the spectra of cooler white dwarfs.

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