Asteroseismology of the Kepler field DBV White Dwarf - It's a hot one!

Abstract

We present an asteroseismic analysis of the helium atmosphere white dwarf (a DBV) recently found in the field of view of the Kepler satellite. We analyze the 5-mode pulsation spectrum that was produced based on one month of high cadence Kepler data. The pulsational characteristics of the star and the asteroseismic analysis strongly suggest that the star is hotter (29200 K) than the 24900 K suggested by model fits to the low S/N survey spectrum of the object. This result has profound and exciting implications for tests of the Standard Model of particle physics. Hot DBVs are expected to lose over half of their energy through the emission of plasmon neutrinos. Continuous monitoring of the star with the Kepler satellite over the course of 3 to 5 years is not only very likely to yield more modes to help constrain the asteroseismic fits, but also allow us to obtain a rate of change of any stable mode and therefore measure the emission of plasmon neutrinos.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (4)

• Seismological studies of ZZ Ceti stars. I. The model grid and the application to individual stars
• Fine Grid Asteroseismology of R548 and G117-B15A
• Whole Earth Telescope observations of the hot helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf EC 20058-5234
• A deeper understanding of white dwarf interiors

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• KIC 4552982: Outbursts and Asteroseismology from the Longest Pseudo-Continuous Light Curve of a ZZ Ceti
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• Kepler sheds new and unprecedented light on the variability of a blue supergiant: gravity waves in the O9.5Iab star HD 188209
• Kepler's first view of O-star variability: K2 data of five O stars in Campaign 0 as a proof-of-concept for O-star asteroseismology
• A Pan-STARRS1 study of the relationship between wide binarity and planet occurrence in the Kepler field
• Asteroseismology of the Kepler V777 Her variable white dwarf with fully evolutionary models
• On the recent parametric determination of an asteroseismological model for the DBV star KIC 08626021
• Probing the structure of Kepler ZZ Ceti stars with full evolutionary models-based asteroseismology
• Revealing the pulsational properties of the V777 Her star KUV 05134+2605 by its long-term monitoring
• Atmospheric parameters and carbon abundance for hot DB white dwarfs
• Discovery of a new PG1159 (GW Vir) Pulsator
• Asteroseismology of ZZ Ceti stars with full evolutionary white dwarf models. II. The impact of AGB thermal pulses on the asteroseismic inferences of ZZ Ceti stars
• Pulsating hydrogen-deficient white dwarfs and pre-white dwarfs observed with {\it TESS}: III. Asteroseismology of the DBV star GD 358
• Radial Oscillations of the HESS J1731-347 Compact Object via the Karmarkar Condition in Gravity
• Kepler Pixel Project -- background RR Lyrae stars in the primary Kepler mission field of view