A New Technique for Probing Convection in Pulsating White Dwarf Stars

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate how pulsating white dwarfs can be used as an astrophysical laboratory for empirically constraining convection in these stars. We do this using a technique for fitting observed non-sinusoidal light curves, which allows us to recover the thermal response timescale of the convection zone (its "depth") as well as how this timescale changes as a function of effective temperature. We also obtain constraints on mode identifications for the pulsation modes, allowing us to use asteroseismology to study the interior structure of these stars. Aspects of this approach may have relevance for other classes of pulsators, including the Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars.

8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the ApJ

Cited by in corpus (46)

• Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars
• Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology
• Probing the interior physics of stars through asteroseismology
• Accretion and diffusion in white dwarfs. New diffusion timescales and applications to GD362 and G29-38
• White Dwarf Rotation as a Function of Mass and a Dichotomy of Mode Linewidths: Kepler Observations of 27 Pulsating DA White Dwarfs Through K2 Campaign 8
• Asteroseismology and Interferometry
• Toward ensemble asteroseismology of ZZ Ceti stars with fully evolutionary models
• A unifying explanation of complex frequency spectra of gamma Dor, SPB and Be stars: combination frequencies and highly non-sinusoidal light curves
• SDSS J184037.78+642312.3: The First Pulsating Extremely Low Mass White Dwarf
• Ensemble Characteristics of the ZZ Ceti stars
• Amplitude and frequency variations of oscillation modes in the pulsating DB white dwarf star KIC~08626021: The likely signature of nonlinear resonant mode coupling
• First Kepler results on compact pulsators VIII: Mode identifications via period spacings in $g-$mode pulsating Subdwarf B stars
• SDSS J142625.71+575218.3, a Prototype for a New Class of Variable White Dwarf
• Seismological studies of ZZ Ceti stars. I. The model grid and the application to individual stars
• Discovery of pulsations, including possible pressure modes, in two new extremely low mass, He-core white dwarfs
• Fine Grid Asteroseismology of R548 and G117-B15A
• The pulsation modes of the pre-white dwarf PG 1159-035
• KIC11911480: the second ZZ Ceti in the $Kepler$ field
• Finding the Instability Strip for Accreting Pulsating White Dwarfs from HST and Optical Observations
• Asteroseismology of the ZZ Ceti star HS 0507+0434B
• Infrared Variability of Two Dusty White Dwarfs
• Empirical Determination of Convection Parameters in White Dwarfs I : Whole Earth Telescope Observations of EC14012-1446
• 2006 Whole Earth Telescope Observations of GD358: A New Look at the Prototype DBV
• TESS first look at evolved compact pulsators: asteroseismology of the pulsating helium-atmosphere white dwarf TIC 257459955
• Evidence for Temperature Change and Oblique Pulsation from Light Curve Fits of the Pulsating White Dwarf GD 358
• Precision asteroseismology of the pulsating white dwarf GD 1212 using a two-wheel-controlled Kepler spacecraft
• Asteroseismology
• A New Timescale for Period Change in the Pulsating DA White Dwarf WD 0111+0018
• HST and Optical Data Reveal White Dwarf Cooling, Spin and Periodicities in GW Librae 3-4 Years after Outburst
• Probing the structure of Kepler ZZ Ceti stars with full evolutionary models-based asteroseismology
• Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-Based Observations of V455 Andromedae Post-Outburst
• Multi-site Observations of Pulsation in the Accreting White Dwarf SDSS J161033.64-010223.3 (V386 Ser)
• Pulsational Mapping of Calcium Across the Surface of a White Dwarf
• The McDonald Observatory search for pulsating sdA stars: asteroseismic support for multiple populations
• New Beta Cephei stars in the young open cluster NGC 637
• Deciphering the Pulsations of G 29-38 with Optical Time Series Spectroscopy
• Time series photometry of the helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf EC 04207-474
• The pulsating DA white dwarf star EC 14012-1446: results from four epochs of time-resolved photometry
• Kepler and TESS Observations of PG 1159-035
• The Pulsating Helium-Atmosphere White Dwarfs I: New DBVs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• HST and Optical Data on SDSSJ0804+5103 (EZ Lyn) One Year after Outburst
• Self-consistent method to extract non-linearities from pulsating stars light curves I. Combination frequencies
• Constraining the Surface Inhomogeneity and Settling Times of Metals on Accreting White Dwarfs
• Mode identification in the high-amplitude δ Scuti star V2367 Cyg
• White Dwarf Variability with gPhoton: Pulsators
• Study of Short Period Variables and Small Amplitude Periodic Variables