A second candidate magnetic helium core white dwarf and 3 other variable white dwarfs in the globular cluster NGC 6397
Abstract
Using archival Hubble Space Telescope observations, we report the discovery of four variable low-mass white dwarfs () in the globular cluster NGC 6397. One source exhibits a periodic optical modulation of hours, which we interpret as potentially due to the rotation of a magnetic helium core WD (He WD). This makes this candidate the second magnetic He WD in NGC 6397, and one of the few He WDs with a measured rotation period. The other three candidates show aperiodic variability, with a change in magnitude ranging from . These discoveries highlight the importance of high-cadence photometric surveys in dense stellar environments. Follow-up spectroscopic observations are needed to confirm the nature of the variability of these systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.12375,
title = {A second candidate magnetic helium core white dwarf and 3 other variable white dwarfs in the globular cluster NGC 6397},
author = {Manuel Pichardo Marcano and Liliana E. Rivera Sandoval and Thomas J. Maccarone and Rene D. Rohrmann and Leandro G. Althaus and Craig O. Heinke and Diogo Belloni and Arash Bahramian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.12375},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJ