Related papers: Carbon-Oxygen Phase Separation in MESA White Dwarf…
Novae are the observational manifestations of thermonuclear runaways on the surface of accreting white dwarfs (WDs). Although novae are an ubiquitous phenomenon, their properties at low metallicity are not well understood. Using the…
Do white dwarfs have inner cores made of iron? Neutron rich nuclei like $^{56}$Fe experience a net gravitational force and sediment toward the core. Using new phase diagrams and molecular dynamics simulations, we show that $^{56}$Fe should…
We report on Keck and {\em Hubble Space Telescope} observations of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR B1855+09. We detect its white-dwarf companion and measure $\mv=25.90\pm0.12$ and $\mi=24.19\pm0.11$ (Vega system). From the…
White dwarfs (WDs) offer unrealized potential in solving two problems in astrophysics: stellar age accuracy and precision. WD cooling ages can be inferred from surface temperatures and radii, which can be constrained with precision by high…
We introduce two simplified nuclear networks that can be used in hydrostatic carbon burning reactions occurring in white dwarf interiors. They model the relevant nuclear reactions in carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (COWDs) approaching ignition…
Numerical simulations suggest that merging double white dwarfs (WDs) may produce a newborn neutron star surrounded by a fossil disk. We investigate the evolution of the fossil disk following the coalescence of double WDs. We demonstrate…
Thanks to their continuous cooling and relative simplicity, white dwarf stars are routinely used to measure the ages of stellar populations. The usefulness of white dwarfs as cosmochronometers depends on the availability of accurate cooling…
We present new white dwarf cooling models which incorporate an accurate outer boundary condition based on new opacity and detailed radiative transfer calculations. We find that helium atmosphere dwarfs cool considerably faster than has…
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) provide a versatile and tailorable material platform that embody many desirable attributes for photocatalytic water-splitting. The approach taken in this study was to use Density Functional Theory (DFT) to…
Hydrogen-rich white dwarfs (WDs) comprise the majority of the WD population, but are only rarely found at the very hot end of the WD cooling sequence. A small subgroup that exhibits both hydrogen and helium lines in their spectra, the…
The origin of large magnetic fields ($\gtrsim 10^6~\mathrm{G}$) in isolated white dwarfs is not clear. One possible explanation is that crystallization of the star's core drives compositional convection, which when combined with the star's…
Observations point to old white dwarfs (WDs) accreting metals at a relatively constant rate over 8~Gyrs. Exo-Oort clouds around WDs have been proposed as potential reservoirs of materials, with galactic tide as a mechanism to deliver…
We seek signatures of the current experimental $^{12}$C$(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}$O reaction rate probability distribution function in the pulsation periods of carbon-oxygen white dwarf models. We find that adiabatic g-modes trapped by the…
Following unstable ignition of carbon, but prior to explosion, a white dwarf (WD) in a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) undergoes a simmering phase. During this time, a central convective region grows and encompasses ~1 Msun of the WD over a…
We present seven evolutionary tracks for low-mass white dwarfs with helium cores, ranging in mass from 0.179 to 0.414 Msol. We generated the pre-white dwarf models from a 1 Msol sequence extending up to the tip of its red-giant branch by…
We provide a fine and homogeneous grid of evolutionary sequences for He-core white dwarfs with masses 0.15-0.45 Msun, including the mass range for ELM white dwarfs (<0.20Msun). The grid is appropriate for mass and age determination, and to…
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…
The astrophysical origins of the heaviest stable elements that we observe today in the Solar System are still not fully understood. Recent studies have demonstrated that H-accreting white dwarfs (WDs) in a binary sys- tem exploding as type…
The origin of the elevated C/O ratios in discs around late M dwarfs compared to discs around solar-type stars is not well understood. Here we endeavour to reproduce the observed differences in the disc C/O ratios as a function of stellar…
We report new infrared spectroscopic observations of cool DQ white dwarfs by using Coolspec on the 2.7m Harlan-Smith Telescope. DQs have helium-rich atmospheres with traces of molecular carbon thought to be the result of convective…