Related papers: Magnetic field breakout from white dwarf crystalli…
I discuss the evolution of the magnetic field of an accreting white dwarf. I show that the ohmic decay time is 7-12 billion years for the lowest order decay mode, almost independent of core temperature or mass. I then show that the magnetic…
White dwarfs (WDs) are frequently observed to have strong magnetic fields up to $10^9$ G and expected to have a possible internal field as high as $\sim 10^{14}$ G. High internal fields can significantly deform a WD's equilibrium structure,…
We determine the phase diagram for dense carbon/ oxygen mixtures in White Dwarf (WD) star interiors using molecular dynamics simulations involving liquid and solid phases. Our phase diagram agrees well with predictions from Ogata et al. and…
Large scale strong magnetic fields in galaxies are generally thought to have been generated by a mean field dynamo. In order to have generated the fields observed, the dynamo would have had to have operated for a sufficiently long period of…
Context: About 10% of white dwarfs have magnetic fields with strength in the range between about 10^5 and 3x10^8 G. It is not known whether the remaining white dwarfs are not magnetic, or if they have a magnetic field too weak to be…
It has long been accepted that a possible mechanism for explaining the existence of magnetic white dwarfs is the merger of a binary white dwarf system, as there are viable mechanisms for producing sustainable magnetic fields within the…
Current estimates for white dwarfs with fields in excess of 1MG are about 10%; according to our first high-precision circular-polarimetric study of 12 bright white dwarfs with the VLT (Aznar Cuadrado et al. 2004) this number increases up to…
We investigate crystallization-driven convection in carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. We present a version of the mixing length theory (MLT) that self-consistently includes the effects of thermal diffusion and composition gradients, and provides…
[abbreviated] Long-lived, large-scale magnetic field configurations exist in upper main sequence, white dwarf, and neutron stars. Externally, these fields have a strong dipolar component, while their internal structure and evolution are…
Rapid bursts at optical wavelengths have been reported for several accreting white dwarfs, where the optical luminosity can increase by up to a factor 30 in less than an hour fading on timescales of several hours, and where the energy…
To shed light on the origin of magnetic symbiotic stars, we investigated the system FN Sgr in detail. We searched for a reasonable formation pathway to explain its stellar and binary parameters including the magnetic field of the accreting…
Double degenerate white dwarf (WD) mergers can exhibit extreme magnetic fields exceeding $10^{8}$ G and rapid rotation, but their spectral-energy distributions and high-energy emission mechanisms remain poorly characterised. ZTF J1901+1458…
Observational estimates of the lifetimes and inferred accretion rates from debris discs around polluted white dwarfs are often inconsistent with the predictions of models of shielded Poynting-Robertson drag on the dust particles in the…
A magnetic dynamo driven by differential rotation generated when stars merge can explain strong fields in certain classes of magnetic stars, including the high field magnetic white dwarfs (HFMWDs). In their case the site of the differential…
Ultra-massive hydrogen-rich (DA spectral type) white dwarf (WD) stars ($M_{\star} > 1M_{\odot}$) coming from single-star evolution are expected to harbor cores made of $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne, resulting from semi-degenerate carbon burning…
Early-type stars show a bimodal distribution of magnetic field strengths, with some showing very strong fields ($\gtrsim 1\,\mathrm{kG}$) and others very weak fields ($\lesssim 10\,\mathrm{G}$). Recently, we proposed that this reflects the…
Four magnetic white dwarfs have been found in the course of the Hamburg/ESO Survey for bright QSOs. The objects have been selected as QSO candidate on the basis of its blue continuum and the apparent absence of strong hydrogen or helium…
An accumulation of multi-epoch, high-resolution, optical spectra reveal that the nearby star G77-50 is a very cool DAZ white dwarf externally polluted by Mg, Fe, Al, Ca, and possibly Na, Cr, Mn. The metallic and hydrogen absorption features…
M-type stars are quickly stepping into the forefront as some of the best candidates in searches for habitable Earth-like exoplanets, and yet many M-dwarfs exhibit extraordinary flaring events which would bombard otherwise habitable planets…
The long-term magnetic behavior of objects near the cooler end of the stellar main sequence is poorly understood. Most theoretical work on the generation of magnetism in these ultracool dwarfs (spectral type >=M7 stars and brown dwarfs)…