Related papers: Charged Condensate and Helium Dwarf Stars
We consider a high density region of the helium phase diagram, where the nuclei form a Bose-Einstein condensate rather than a classical plasma or a crystal. Helium in this phase may be present in helium-core white dwarfs. We show that in…
We develop further the proposal of arXiv:0806.3692 that a new state of matter -- charged condensate of spin-0 nuclei -- may exist in helium-core dwarf stars. The charged condensate and its fluctuations are described by an effective field…
The possibility of the formation of a condensate of charged spin-0 nuclei inside white dwarf cores, studied in arXiv:0806.3692 and arXiv:0904.4267, is pursued further. It has been shown, for cores composed mainly of one element (Helium or…
It has been recently proposed that helium white dwarfs may provide promising conditions for the occurrence of the Bose-Einstein condensation. The argument supporting this expectation is that in some conditions attained in the core of these…
Arguments are summarized, that neutral matter made of helium, carbon, etc., should form a quantum liquid at the above-atomic but below-nuclear densities for which the charged spin-0 nuclei can condense. The resulting substance has…
The possibility that ions in a helium white dwarf star are in a Bose-Einstein condensed state has been explored recently. In particular, it has been argued that the resulting novel quantum liquid has a new kind of quasiparticle excitation…
We consider Bose-Einstein condensation of massive electrically charged scalars in a uniform background of charged fermions. We focus on the case when the scalar condensate screens the background charge, while the net charge of the system…
We investigate the ionization and the opacity of warm, dense helium under conditions found in the atmospheres of cool white dwarf stars. Our particular interest is in densities up to $\rm 3 g/cm^{3}$ and temperatures from 1000K to 10000K.…
Once carbon--oxygen white dwarfs cool sufficiently, they crystallize from the inside out. If the white dwarf is rich enough in ${}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$, these crystallized solids are buoyant and rapidly rise, efficiently liberating potential…
The atmospheres of cool, helium-rich white dwarfs constitute an exotic and poorly explored physical regime of stellar atmospheres. Under physical conditions where the temperature varies from $\rm 1000K$ to $\rm 10000K$, the density can…
There has been considerable interest in the last several years in support of the idea that galaxies and clusters could have highly condensed cores of dark matter (DM) within their central regions. In particular, it has been suggested that…
The recent plethora of sky surveys, especially the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, have discovered many low-mass (M < 0.45 Msun) white dwarfs that should have cores made of nearly pure helium. These WDs come in two varieties; those with masses…
White dwarfs are stellar embers depleted of nuclear energy sources that cool over billions of years. These stars, which are supported by electron degeneracy pressure, reach densities of 1e7 grams per cubic centimetre in their cores. It has…
We present an analysis of 40 cool helium-rich white dwarfs found in the Hamburg/ESO survey. They were selected for follow-up spectroscopy because of their U-B colour below -0.18, the absence of strong absorption lines, and a continuum shape…
We study the thermodynamics of helium at densities relevant for white dwarf physics. We find evidence that, as the temperature is increased, there is first a first order transition between two superconducting phases followed by a second…
White dwarfs are stellar remnants devoid of a nuclear energy source, gradually cooling over billions of years and eventually freezing into a solid state from the inside out. Recently, it was discovered that a population of freezing white…
Due to their high photospheric density, cool helium-rich white dwarfs (particularly DZ, DQpec and ultracool) are often poorly described by current atmosphere models. As part of our ongoing efforts to design atmosphere models suitable for…
We calculate the grand canonical partition function at the one-loop level for scalar quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature and chemical potential. A classical background charge density with a charge opposite that of the scalars…
The purpose of this work is to explore the evolution of helium-core white dwarf stars in a self-consistent way with the predictions of detailed non-gray model atmospheres and element diffusion. To this end, we consider helium-core white…
It is predicted that orbital decay by gravitational-wave radiation and tidal interaction will cause some close-binary stars to merge within a Hubble time. The merger of a helium-core white dwarf with a main-sequence star can produce a red…