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A search for pulsations in helium white dwarfs

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Steinfadt, Justin D. R., Bildsten, Lars, Kaplan, David L., Fulton, Benjamin J., Howell, Steve B., Marsh, T. R., Ofek, Eran O. and Shporer, Avi. (2012) A search for pulsations in helium white dwarfs. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol.124 (No.911). pp. 1-13. ISSN 00046280

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/663865

Abstract

The recent plethora of sky surveys, especially the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, have discovered many low-mass ( M < 0.45 M ) white dwarfs that should have cores made of nearly pure helium. These WDs come in two varieties: those with masses 0.2 < M < 0.45 M and H envelopes so thin that they rapidly cool and those with M < 0.2 M (often called extremely low mass [ELM] WDs) that have thick enough H envelopes to sustain 10 yr of H burning. In both cases, these WDs evolve through the ZZ Ceti instability strip, Teff ≈ 9000–12,000 K, where g-mode pulsations always occur in carbon/oxygen WDs. This expectation, plus theoretical work on the contrasts between C/O and He-core WDs, motivated our search for pulsations in 12 well-characterized helium WDs. We report here on our failure to find any pulsators among our sample. Though we have varying amplitude limits, it appears likely that the theoretical expectations regarding the onset of pulsations in these objects require closer consideration. We close by encouraging additional observations as new He WD samples become available, and we speculate on where theoretical work may be needed.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	White dwarf stars, Helium, Stellar oscillations
Journal or Publication Title:	Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Publisher:	Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ISSN:	00046280
Date:	January 2012
Volume:	Vol.124
Number:	No.911
Page Range:	pp. 1-13
Identification Number:	10.1086/663865
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF), United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant number:	PHY 05-51164 (NSF), AST 07-07633 (NSF), AST 11-09174 (NSF), 01207.01-A (NASA), HSTGO- 11581.01-A (NASA)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/42538