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Register a new userObservational constraints on the evolutionary connection between PG 1159 stars and DO white dwarfs
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Added by
Simon D. H\\\"ugelmeyer
Publication date
2006
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
S. D. Huegelmeyer
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The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has provided spectra of a large number of new PG 1159 stars and DO white dwarfs. This increase in known hot H-deficient compact objects significantly improves the statistics and helps to investigate late stages of stellar evolution. We have finished our analyses of nine PG 1159 stars and 23 DO white dwarfs by means of detailed NLTE model atmospheres. From the optical SDSS spectra, effective temperatures, surface gravities, and element abundances are derived by using our new automated chi^2-fitting in order to place the observed objects in an evolutionary context. Especially the connection between PG 1159 stars and DO white dwarfs has been investigated.
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PG 1159-035, a pre-white dwarf with T_eff=140,000 K, is the prototype of both two classes: the PG1159 spectroscopic class and the DOV pulsating class. Previous studies of PG 1159-035 photometric data obtained with the Whole Earth Telescope (WET) showed a rich frequency spectrum allowing the identification of 122 pulsation modes. In this work, we used all available WET photometric data from 1983, 1985, 1989, 1993 and 2002 to identify the pulsation periods and identified 76 additional pulsation modes, increasing to 198 the number of known pulsation modes in PG 1159-035, the largest number of modes detected in any star besides the Sun. From the period spacing we estimated a mass M = 0.59 +/- 0.02 solar masses for PG 1159-035, with the uncertainty dominated by the models, not the observation. Deviations in the regular period spacing suggest that some of the pulsation modes are trapped, even though the star is a pre-white dwarf and the gravitational settling is ongoing. The position of the transition zone that causes the mode trapping was calculated at r_c = 0.83 +/- 0.05 stellar radius. From the multiplet splitting, we calculated the rotational period P_rot = 1.3920 +/- 0.0008 days and an upper limit for the magnetic field, B < 2000 G. The total power of the pulsation modes at the stellar surface changed less than 30% for l=1 modes and less than 50% for l=2 modes. We find no evidence of linear combinations between the 198 pulsation mode frequencies. PG 1159-035 models have not significative convection zones, supporting the hypothesis that nonlinearity arises in the convection zones in cooler pulsating white dwarf stars.
An asteroseismological study of PG 1159-035, the prototype of the GW Vir variable stars, has been performed on the basis of detailed and full PG1159 evolutionary models presented by Miller Bertolami & Althaus (2006). We carried out extensive computations of adiabatic g-mode pulsation periods on PG1159 evolutionary models with stellar masses spanning the range 0.530 to 0.741 Mo. We derive a stellar mass in the range 0.56-0.59 Mo from the period-spacing data alone. We also find, on the basis of a period-fit procedure, a seismic model representative of PG 1159-035 that reproduces the observed period pattern with an average of the period differences of 0.64-1.03 s, consistent with the expected model uncertainties. The results of the period-fit analysis carried out in this work suggest that the surface gravity of PG 1159-035 would be 1 sigma larger than the spectroscopically inferred gravity. For our best-fit model of PG 1159-035, all of the pulsation modes are characterized by positive rates of period changes, at odds with the measurements by Costa & Kepler (2007).
PG 1159-035, a pre-white dwarf with T=140000 K, is the prototype of the PG1159 spectroscopic class and the DOV pulsating class. Changes in the star cause variations in its oscillation periods. The measurement of temporal change in the oscillation periods, dP/dt, allows us to estimate directly rates of stellar evolutionary changes, such as the cooling rate and the envelope contraction rate, providing a way to test and refine evolutionary models for pre-white dwarf pulsating stars. We measured 27 pulsation modes period changes. The periods varied at rates of between 1 and 100 ms/yr, and several can be directly measured with a relative standard uncertainty below 10%. For the 516.0 s mode (the highest in amplitude) in particular, not only the value of dP/dt can be measured directly with a relative standard uncertainty of 2%, but the second order period change, d(dP/dt)/dt, can also be calculated reliably. By using the (O-C) method we refined the dP/dt and estimated the d(dP/dt)/dt for six other pulsation periods. As a first application, we calculated the change in the PG 1559-035 rotation period, dP_rot/dt = -2.13*10^{-6} s/s, the envelope contraction rate dR/dt = -2.2*10^{-13} solar radius/s, and the cooling rante dT/dt = -1.42*10^{-3} K/s.
There are no known examples of magnetic white dwarfs with fields larger than about 3MG paired with a non-degenerate companion in detached binary systems. The suggestion is that highly magnetic, isolated white dwarfs may originate from stars that coalesce during common envelope evolution while those stars that emerge from a common envelope on a close orbit may evolve into double degenerate systems consisting of two white dwarfs, one or both magnetic. The presence of planets or planetary debris around white dwarfs is also a new and exciting area of research that may give us important clues on the formation of first and second generation planetary systems, since these place unique signatures in the spectra of white dwarfs.
SDSS (DR1 and DR2) has recently proposed 7 new DO white dwarfs as well as 6 new PG1159 stars. This is a significant increase in the known number of DOs and PG1159 stars. Our spectral analyses provide stellar parameters which can then be used to derive constraints for the evolution of H-deficient white dwarfs. A comprehensive understanding of these objects is still severely hampered by low-number statistics.
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