Variable white dwarfs

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S357) ◽  
pp. 107-109
Author(s):  
H. L. Shipman

AbstractAsteroseismology of white dwarf stars has led to a number of interesting results pertaining to the long term evolution and present state of white dwarf interiors. I will review recent results and will give a not necessarily comprehensive view of the prospects for further progress in this area. Two – but only two white dwarf stars - have shown the expected cooling as they age. Careful observations of a few white dwarfs with rich pulsational properties reveal interior compositions as well as the thickness of their surface layers. A few very well observed stars have revealed changes in their pulsational spectra which we don’t understand yet.

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1760023
Author(s):  
S. O. Kepler ◽  
Alejandra Daniela Romero ◽  
Ingrid Pelisoli ◽  
Gustavo Ourique

White dwarf stars are the final stage of most stars, born single or in multiple systems. We discuss the identification, magnetic fields, and mass distribution for white dwarfs detected from spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey up to Data Release 13 in 2016, which lead to the increase in the number of spectroscopically identified white dwarf stars from 5[Formula: see text]000 to 39[Formula: see text]000. This number includes only white dwarf stars with [Formula: see text], i.e., excluding the Extremely Low Mass white dwarfs, which are necessarily the byproduct of stellar interaction.


Author(s):  
Arthur N. Cox ◽  
Sumner G. Starrfield ◽  
Russell B. Kidman ◽  
W. Dean Pesnell

1987 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur N. Cox ◽  
Russell B. Kidman ◽  
Sumner G. Starrfield ◽  
W. Dean Pesnell

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (H15) ◽  
pp. 370-370
Author(s):  
A. Romero ◽  
A. H. Córsico ◽  
L. G. Althaus ◽  
E. García-Berro

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*).


1992 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 643-645
Author(s):  
G. Fontaine ◽  
F. Wesemael

AbstractIt is generally believed that the immediate progenitors of most white dwarfs are nuclei of planetary nebulae, themselves the products of intermediate- and low-mass main sequence evolution. Stars that begin their lifes with masses less than about 7-8 M⊙ (i.e., the vast majority of them) are expected to become white dwarfs. Among those which have already had the time to become white dwarfs since the formation of the Galaxy, a majority have burnt hydrogen and helium in their interiors. Consequently, most of the mass of a typical white dwarf is contained in a core made of the products of helium burning, mostly carbon and oxygen. The exact proportions of C and 0 are unknown because of uncertainties in the nuclear rates of helium burning.


2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Handler

AbstractI have collected all the WET archival data on the pulsating DB white dwarf stars (DBVs) and re-reduced them. In addition, the WET has recently observed three DBVs. Preliminary results on PG 1115+158, PG 1351+489, KUV 05134+2605, PG 1654+160 and PG 1456+103 are presented, and the future use of the data is outlined.


1978 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 117-120
Author(s):  
Harry L. Shipman

The status of determinations of white dwarf radii by model atmosphere methods is reviewed in this paper. Details will appear elsewhere (Shipman 1978). In brief, the results are that (i) the mean radius of a sample of 95 hydrogen-rich stars with parallaxes is 0.0131 R⊙; (ii) the mean radius of a sample of 13 helium-rich stars is 0.011 R⊙, indistinguishably different from the radius of the hydrogen-rich stars; and (iii) that the most serious limitation on our knowledge of the mean radius of white dwarfs is the influence of selection effects. An estimate of the selection effects indicates that the true mean white dwarf radius is near 0.011 R⊙.


1987 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 47-51
Author(s):  
E.M. Sion

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.


1971 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 67-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Oke ◽  
H. L. Shipman

White dwarf stars are among the most challenging and interesting objects which can be studied. Because they represent the interiors of highly-evolved stars, the chemical composition can be enormously variable from object to object. Furthermore, because of the very large gravities, the composition of the atmosphere may be very different from that in the interior. The theory of the degenerate interior provides a relation among mass, radius and chemical composition. Since temperatures, effective gravities, and redshifts can, for certain stars, provide further relations between mass and radius, one can hope to make checks on the theory which are not possible with ordinary stars.


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