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I will start by discussing the evolutionary status of the white dwarf *progenitors*, the hot UV bright stars. Observations of UIT-selected UV bright stars in globular clusters suggest that a high percentage of them manage to evolve from the…
Discrepancies have emerged between the predictions of standard cold dark matter (CDM) theory and observations of clustering on sub-galactic scales. Warm dark matter (WDM) is a simple modification of CDM in which the dark matter particles…
We study the cooling behaviour of an isolated strange quark star, using an equation of state derived from perturbative QCD up to second order in strong coupling constant, and we compare it with that of a neutron star. After an initial rapid…
White dwarf atmospheres are frequently polluted by material from their own planetary systems. Absorption features from Ca, Mg, Fe and other elements can provide unique insights into the provenance of this exoplanetary material, with their…
Fundamental parameters and physical processes leading to the formation of white dwarfs (WDs) may be constrained and refined by discovering WDs in open clusters (OCs). Cluster membership can be utilized to establish the precise distances,…
The analysis of noble gases in primitive meteorites has shown the existence of anomalous isotopic abundances when compared with the average Solar System values. In particular it has been found that some graphite grains contain a unexpected…
Spitzer MIPS 24 um images were obtained for 36 Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) whose central stars are hot white dwarfs (WDs) or pre-WDs with effective temperatures of ~100,000 K or higher. Diffuse 24 um emission is detected in 28 of these…
Taking advantage of the Gaia Data Release 2, recent studies have revisited the evolution of carbon-polluted white dwarfs (DQs) across a large range of effective temperatures. These analyses have clearly confirmed the existence of two…
We present a small collection of FUSE spectra representative of the main spectral classes found in white dwarf stars. In addition, we also discuss another family of hot evolved stars, that of the hot subdwarfs. Both families belong to the…
Recent observations of white dwarfs in globular clusters indicate that these stars may get a velocity kick during their time as giants. This velocity kick could originate naturally if the mass loss while on the asymptotic giant branch is…
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…
We analyze the effect of the sedimentation of $^{22}$Ne on the local white dwarf luminosity function by studying scenarios under different Galactic metallicity models. We make use of an up-to-date population synthesis code based on Monte…
Non-radial pulsations have been identified in a number of accreting white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables. These stars offer insight into the excitation of pulsation modes in atmospheres with mixed compositions of hydrogen, helium, and…
We construct time-dependent one-dimensional (vertically averaged) models of accretion disks produced by the tidal disruption of a white dwarf (WD) by a binary neutron star (NS) companion. Nuclear reactions in the disk midplane burn the WD…
Recently, a new class of white dwarfs (dubbed ``slowly cooling WDs'') has been identified in two globular clusters (namely M13 and NGC 6752) showing a horizontal branch (HB) morphology with an extended blue tail. The cooling rate of these…
Four years after the discovery of a unique DAQ white dwarf with a hydrogen-dominated and carbon-rich atmosphere, we report the discovery of four new DAQ white dwarfs, including two that were not recognized properly in the literature. We…
The observational signature of core crystallization of white dwarfs has recently been discovered. However, the magnitude of the crystallization-powered cooling delay required to match observed white dwarfs is larger than predicted by…
We use the results of realistic N-body simulations to investigate the appearance of the white dwarf population in dense star clusters. We show that the presence of a substantial binary population in a star cluster, and the interaction of…
Recently, Cheng et al. identified a number of massive white dwarfs (WD) that appear to have an additional heat source providing a luminosity near $\approx 10^{-3}L_\odot$ for multiple Gyr. In this paper we explore heating from electron…
Pre-white dwarf (PWD) star evolution can be driven by energy losses from neutrino interactions in the core. Unlike solar neutrinos, these are not the by-product of nuclear fusion, but instead result from electron scattering processes in the…