2008/09/04 by A. Nitta, S. J. Kleinman, J. Krzesinski +8 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/690/1/560
published as Astrophys.J.690:560-565,2009 · 15 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, ApJ accepted
arxiv created 2008/09/04 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We are searching for new He atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DBVs) based on the newly found white dwarf stars from the spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. DBVs pulsate at hotter temperature ranges than their better known cousins, the H atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DAVs or ZZ Ceti stars). Since the evolution of white dwarf stars is characterized by cooling, asteroseismological studies of DBVs give us opportunities to study white dwarf structure at a different evolutionary stage than the DAVs. The hottest DBVs are thought to have neutrino luminosities exceeding their photon luminosities, a quantity measurable through asteroseismology. Therefore, they can also be used to study neutrino physics in the stellar interior. So far we have discovered nine new DBVs, doubling the number of previously known DBVs. Here we report the new pulsators' light curves and power spectra.