The energetics of crystallizing white dwarfs revisited again

Abstract

The evolution of white dwarfs is a cooling process that depends on the energy stored in the core and on the way in which it is transferred through the envelope. In this paper we show that despite some (erroneous) claims, the redistribution of chemical elements ensuing the crystallization of C/O white dwarfs provides between the 10% and the 20% of the total energy released during the crystallization process, depending on the internal chemical composition, which is not negligible at all, given the present state of the art of the white dwarf cooling theory.

arXiv comment16 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (5)

• The cooling of CO white dwarfs: influence of the internal chemical distribution
• Cooling Models for Old White Dwarfs
• The Physics of crystallizing white dwarfs
• Evolutionary calculations of phase separation in crystallizing white dwarf stars
• The halo white dwarf population

Cited by in corpus (43)

• Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars
• New cooling sequences for old white dwarfs
• A white dwarf cooling age of 8 Gyr for NGC 6791 from physical separation processes
• Axions and the cooling of white dwarf stars
• A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies: VI. White dwarf cooling sequences
• The ages of very cool hydrogen-rich white dwarfs
• The origin and evolution of magnetic white dwarfs in close binary stars
• Reaching the End of the White Dwarf Cooling Sequence in NGC 6791
• Comparison of theoretical white dwarf cooling timescales
• Cooling sequences and color-magnitude diagrams for cool white dwarfs with hydrogen-atmospheres
• A common origin of magnetism from planets to white dwarfs
• New chemical profiles for the asteroseismology of ZZ Ceti stars
• The Physics of Crystallization from Globular Cluster White Dwarf Stars in NGC 6397
• Calibration of White Dwarf cooling sequences: theoretical uncertainty
• Asteroseismological study of massive ZZ Ceti stars with fully evolutionary models
• Evolution of white dwarf stars with high-metallicity progenitors: the role of 22Ne diffusion
• The updated BaSTI stellar evolution models and isochrones. III. White Dwarfs
• An upper limit to the secular variation of the gravitational constant from white dwarf stars
• Gravitational settling of 22Ne and white dwarf evolution
• Axions and the white dwarf luminosity function
• Monte Carlo simulations of the halo white dwarf population
• New phase diagrams for dense carbon-oxygen mixtures and white dwarf evolution
• Toward Precision Cosmochronology: A New C/O Phase Diagram for White Dwarfs
• The explosion of supernova 2011fe in the frame of the core-degenerate scenario
• Buoyant crystals halt the cooling of white dwarf stars
• On the evolution of rotating accreting white dwarfs and type Ia supernovae
• On the Spectral Evolution of Hot White Dwarf Stars. II. Time-dependent Simulations of Element Transport in Evolving White Dwarfs with STELUM
• Limits on the neutrino magnetic dipole moment from the luminosity function of hot white dwarfs
• White dwarfs as Physics laboratories: lights and shadows
• The white dwarf population of NGC 6397
• Direct Evaluation of the Phase Diagrams of Dense Multicomponent Plasmas by Integration of the Clapeyron Equations
• White Dwarf cooling Sequences, II: luminosity functions
• Heat transport and convective velocities in compositionally-driven convection in neutron star and white dwarf interiors
• Quiescent nuclear burning in low-metallicity white dwarfs
• The evolution of white dwarfs with a varying gravitational constant
• The white dwarf cooling sequence of NGC 6791: a unique tool for stellar evolution
• The effects of ${}^{22}$Ne sedimentation and metallicity on the local 40 pc white dwarf luminosity function
• Fast and Slow Crystallization-driven Convection in White Dwarfs
• White dwarf cooling sequences and cosmochronology
• Magnetic White Dwarfs: Observations, Theory, and Future Prospects
• The effects of metallicity on the Galactic disk population of white dwarfs
• Three-component Phase Separation for Ultramassive White Dwarf Models
• Slow convection and fast rotation in crystallization-driven white dwarf dynamos