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 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.

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 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 The Composition and Structure of White Dwarf Atmospheres Revealed by Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy

1996 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 203-210
Author(s):  
Martin A. Barstow ◽  
Ivan Hubeny ◽  
Thierry Lanz ◽  
Jay B. Holberg ◽  
Edward M. Sion
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Extreme Ultraviolet ◽  
Important Change ◽  
Heavy Elements ◽  
Composition And Structure ◽  
Crucial Test ◽  
Central Stars ◽  
Quantitative Consideration

The ROSAT and EUVE all-sky surveys have resulted in an important change in our understanding of the general composition of hydrogen-rich DA white dwarf atmospheres, with the photospheric opacity dominated by heavy elements rather than helium in the hottest stars (T > 40, 000 K). Most stars cooler than 40,000 K have more or less pure H atmospheres. However, one question, which has not been resolved, concerned the specific nature of the heavy elements and the role of helium in the hottest white dwarfs. One view of white dwarf evolution requires that H-rich DA stars form by gravitational settling of He from either DAO or He-rich central stars of planetary nebulae. In this case, the youngest (hottest) DA white dwarfs may still contain visible traces of He. Spectroscopic observations now available with EUVE provide a crucial test of these ideas. Analysis of data from the EUVE Guest Observer programme and EUVE public archive allows quantitative consideration of the sources of EUV opacity and places limits on the abundance of He which may be present.

scholarly journals White Dwarfs and Planetary Central Stars

1989 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 545-554
Author(s):  
James Liebert
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Planetary Nebulae ◽  
Hydrogen Atmosphere ◽  
Surface Gravity ◽  
Surface Hydrogen ◽  
Central Stars

Studies of hot white dwarf samples constrain the properties and evolution of planetary nuclei and the nebulae. In particular, the white dwarf and planetary nebulae formation rates are compared. I discuss the overlap of the sequences of white dwarfs having hydrogen (DA) and helium-rich (DO) atmospheres with known central stars of high surface gravity. There is evidence that the hydrogen atmosphere nuclei have “thick” outer hydrogen layers (≳ 10−4 M⊙), but that DA white dwarfs may have surface hydrogen layers orders of magnitude thinner. Finally, a DA planetary nucleus is discussed (0950+139) which has undergone a late nebular ejection; this object may be demonstrating that a hydrogen layer can be lost even after the star has entered the white dwarf cooling sequence.

scholarly journals On the Spectral Classification of Cool White Dwarfs

1976 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
I. Bues
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Model Atmosphere ◽  
Spectral Classification ◽  
Detailed Model ◽  
Cool White Dwarfs ◽  
Low Dispersion

The Eggen-Greenstein (1965) classification of cool white dwarfs (DC, DF, DG, λ 4670, λ 4135) was based on the features visible in the spectra of low dispersion. Detailed model atmosphere computations (11000 ≥ Teff ≥ 7000 K) and comparison with spectra observed by Wegner (1974, 1975) show that the variety of the spectra is due to changes in the abundance ratios of C/O, C/H and H/He only. Thus the relative strengths of the C2 and CH-bands can be used for classification and guess of Teff in the range of Teff ≥ 6000 K.

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 Implications of White-Dwarf Crystallization for the Chemical Composition of the Planetary Nuclei

1968 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 425-427
Author(s):  
H.M. Van Horn
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
White Dwarf ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Planetary Nebulae ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Central Stars

It now seems to be reasonably well-established that the central stars of planetary nebulae evolve directly into white dwarfs. Evidently a knowledge of the chemical composition of the white dwarfs would therefore be of considerable importance in helping to identify the point in the evolution at which the mechanism responsible for expulsion of the nebular shell becomes operative. For this reason I would like to present some evidence which provides a direct suggestion for the internal composition of some of the white dwarfs and to examine briefly the implications of this suggestion for the relation between the planetary nuclei and the white dwarfs.

scholarly journals IUE Observations of Central Stars

1983 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
pp. 375-390
Author(s):  
Sara R. Heap
Keyword(s):  
White Dwarf ◽  
Spectral Properties ◽  
White Dwarfs ◽  
Planetary Nebulae ◽  
Hot Stars ◽  
Gravitational Settling ◽  
Ultimate Fate ◽  
Central Stars

Despite similar evolutionary histories and a common ultimate fate as white dwarfs, central stars of planetary nebulae have surprisingly diverse spectral properties. Their visual spectral types encompass all varieties known for hot stars, including Wolf-Rayet, O and Of, subdwarf O, white-dwarf, and continuous (Aller 1968, 1976), and O VI-emission types (Smith and Aller 1969, Heap 1982). Their spectroscopic temperatures range from less than 30,000°K (e.g. He 2-138, Mendez and Niemela 1979; the WC 11 stars, Houziaux and Heck 1982) to upwards to 150,000°K or more (e.g. NGC 246, Heap 1975; Abell 30, Greenstein 1981). Their atmospheres range from demonstrably helium- and carbon-rich (e.g. the WR stars, Barlow and Hummer 1982, Benvenutı et al. 1982) to apparently normal (e.g. the Of stars, Heap 1977a,b), to helium-poor (e.g. the nascent white dwarfs in Abell 7 and NGC 7293, where gravitational settling appears to have already taken effect, Mendez et al. 1981).

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