Uncovering the chemical structure of the pulsating low-mass white dwarf SDSS J115219.99+024814.4

Abstract

Pulsating low-mass white dwarf stars are white dwarfs with stellar masses between 0.30~M${}_{\odot }$ and 0.45~M${}_{\odot }$ that show photometric variability due to gravity-mode pulsations. Within this mass range, they can harbour both a helium- and hybrid-core, depending if the progenitor experienced helium-core burning during the pre-white dwarf evolution. SDSS J115219.99$+$024814.4 is an eclipsing binary system where both components are low-mass white dwarfs, with stellar masses of 0.362$\pm$0.014~M${}_{\odot }$ and 0.325$\pm$0.013~M${}_{\odot }$. In particular, the less massive component is a pulsating star, showing at least three pulsation periods of $\sim$1314 s, $\sim$1069 s and $\sim$582.9 s. This opens the way to use asteroseismology as a tool to uncover its inner chemical structure, in combination with the information obtained using the light-curve modelling of the eclipses. To this end, using binary evolutionary models leading to helium- and hybrid-core white dwarfs, we compute adiabatic pulsations for $\ell =1$ and $\ell =2$ gravity modes with \texttt{Gyre}. We found that the pulsating component of the SDSS J115219.99$+$024814.4 system must have a hydrogen envelope thinner that the value obtained from binary evolution computations, independently of the inner composition. Finally, from our asteroseismological study, we find a best fit model characterised by T${}_{\mathrm{eff}}=10917$ K, M=0.338~M${}_{\odot }$, M${}_{\mathrm{H}}=10^{-6}$~M${}_{\odot }$ with the inner composition of a hybrid WD.

10 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication by MNRAS

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