No Arabic abstract
We report the discovery of two new accreting pulsating white dwarf stars amongst the cataclysmic variables of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: SDSSJ074531.91+453829.5 and SDSSJ091945.10+085710.0. We observe high amplitude non-sinusoidal variations of 4.5-7% at a period close to 1230s in the optical light curves of SDSSJ074531.91+453829.5 and a low amplitude variation of 0.7-1.6% near 260s in the light curves of SDSSJ091945.10+085710.0. We infer that these optical variations are a consequence of nonradial g-mode pulsations in the accreting primary white dwarfs of these cataclysmic variables. However we cannot rule out the remote possibility that the 260s period could be the spin period of the accreting white dwarf SDSSJ091945.10+085710.0. We also uncovered a non-variable SDSSJ171145.08+301320.0 during our search; our two observing runs exclude any pulsation related periodicities in the range of 85-1400s with an amplitude greater than or equal to 0.5%. This discovery paper brings the total number of known accreting white dwarf pulsators to eleven.
At present, a large number of pulsating white dwarf (WD) stars is being discovered either from Earth-based surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or through observations from space (e.g., the Kepler mission). The asteroseismological techniques allow us to infer details of internal chemical stratification, the total mass, and even the stellar rotation profile. In this paper, we first describe the basic properties of WD stars and their pulsations, as well as the different sub-types of these variables known so far. Subsequently, we describe some recent findings about pulsating low-mass WDs.
The present work is designed to explore the effects of the time-dependent element diffusion on the mode trapping properties of DA white dwarf models with various thickness of the hydrogen envelope. Our predictions are compared with the standard assumption of diffusive equilibrium in the trace element approximation. We find that element diffusion markedly weakens the presence of mode trapping originated in the outer layers of the models, even for the case of thin hydrogen envelopes.
In this paper, we present the observations of two new GW Vir stars from the extended textit{TESS} mission in both 120,s short-cadence and 20,s ultra-short-cadence mode of two pre-white dwarf stars showing hydrogen deficiency. We performed an asteroseismological analysis of these stars on the basis of PG~1159 evolutionary models that take into account the complete evolution of the progenitor stars. We searched for patterns of uniform period spacings in order to constrain the stellar mass of the stars, and employed the individual observed periods to search for a representative seismological model. The analysis of the {it TESS} light curves of TIC,333432673 and TIC,095332541 reveals the presence of several oscillations with periods ranging from 350 to 500~s associated to typical gravity ($g$)-modes. From follow-up ground-based spectroscopy, we find that both stars have similar effective temperature ($T_mathrm{eff} = 120,000 pm 10,000$,K) and surface gravity ($log g = 7.5 pm 0.5$) but a different He/C composition. On the basis of PG~1159 evolutionary tracks, we derived a spectroscopic mass of $M_{star}$ = $0.58^{+0.16}_{-0.08},M_{odot}$ for both stars. Our asteroseismological analysis of TIC,333432673 allowed us to find a constant period spacing compatible with a stellar mass $M_{star}sim 0.60-0.61,M_{odot}$, and an asteroseismological model for this star with a stellar mass $M_{star}$ = $0.589pm 0.020$ $M_{odot}$, and a seismological distance of $d= 459^{+188}_{-156}$ pc. For this star, we find an excellent agreement between the different methods to infer the stellar mass, and also between the seismological distance and that measured with {it Gaia} ($d_{rm Gaia}= 389^{+5.6}_{-5.2}$ pc). For TIC,095332541, we have found a possible period spacing that suggests a stellar mass of $M_{star}sim 0.55-0.57,M_{odot}$.
We report the discovery of pulsations in three mixed-atmosphere, extremely low-mass white dwarf (ELM WD, M $leqslant$ 0.3 M$_{odot}$) precursors. Following the recent discoveries of pulsations in both ELM and pre-ELM WDs, we targeted pre-ELM WDs with mixed H/He atmospheres with high-speed photometry. We find significant optical variability in all three observed targets with periods in the range 320--590 s, consistent in timescale with theoretical predictions of $p$-mode pulsations in mixed-atmosphere $approx$ 0.18 M$_{odot}$ He-core pre-ELM WDs. This represents the first empirical evidence that pulsations in pre-ELM WDs can only occur if a significant amount of He is present in the atmosphere. Future, more extensive, time-series photometry of the brightest of the three new pulsators offers an excellent opportunity to constrain the thickness of the surface H layer, which regulates the cooling timescales for ELM WDs.
The unprecedented extent of coverage provided by Kepler observations recently revealed outbursts in two hydrogen-atmosphere pulsating white dwarfs (DAVs) that cause hours-long increases in the overall mean flux of up to 14%. We have identified two new outbursting pulsating white dwarfs in K2, bringing the total number of known outbursting white dwarfs to four. EPIC 211629697, with T_eff = 10,780 +/- 140 K and log(g) = 7.94 +/- 0.08, shows outbursts recurring on average every 5.0 d, increasing the overall flux by up to 15%. EPIC 229227292, with T_eff = 11,190 +/- 170 K and log(g) = 8.02 +/- 0.05, has outbursts that recur roughly every 2.4 d with amplitudes up to 9%. We establish that only the coolest pulsating white dwarfs within a small temperature range near the cool, red edge of the DAV instability strip exhibit these outbursts.