White Dwarf Variability
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
2025-02-20 v1
Abstract
There are a few different mechanisms that can cause white dwarf stars to vary in brightness, providing opportunities to probe the physics, structures, and formation of these compact stellar remnants. The observational characteristics of the three most common types of white dwarf variability are summarized: stellar pulsations, rotation, and ellipsoidal variations from tidal distortion in binary systems. Stellar pulsations are emphasized as the most complex type of variability, which also has the greatest potential to reveal the conditions of white dwarf interiors.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2502.13258,
title = {White Dwarf Variability},
author = {Keaton J. Bell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.13258},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
To be included as a chapter in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Astrophysics from Elsevier (eds. Jeff Andrews, Ilya Mandel)