Related papers: On the crystallization onset in white dwarfs
The evolution of white dwarfs is a cooling process that depends on the energy stored in the core and on the way in which it is transferred through the envelope. In this paper we show that despite some (erroneous) claims, the redistribution…
Accurate models of cooling white dwarfs must treat the energy released as their cores crystallize. This phase transition slows the cooling by releasing latent heat and also gravitational energy, which results from phase separation: liquid C…
Based on the linear mixing approach, we calculate the latent heat for crystallizing fully-ionized $^{12}$C/$^{16}$O and $^{16}$O/$^{20}$Ne mixtures in white dwarf (WD) cores for two different parametrizations of the corrections to the…
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…
The continuous cooling of a white dwarf is punctuated by events that affect its cooling rate. Probably the most significant of those is the crystallization of its core, a phase transition that occurs once the C/O interior has cooled down…
White dwarfs can be used as galactic chronometers and, therefore, provide important information about galactic evolution if good theoretical models of their cooling are available. Consequently, it is natural to wonder if all the sources or…
The 3-body crystallization diagrams of C/O/Ne ionic mixtures characteristic of white dwarf interiors are examined within the framework of the density-functional theory of freezing. The crystallization process is described more accurately…
Convective overshooting in super asymptotic giant branch stars has been suggested to lead to the formation of hybrid white dwarfs with carbon-oxygen cores and oxygen-neon mantles. As the white dwarf cools, this core-mantle configuration…
A convective dynamo operating during the crystallization of white dwarfs is one of the promising channels to produce their observed strong magnetic fields. Although the magnitude of the fields generated by crystallization dynamos is…
We explore the physics of crystallization in the deep interiors of white dwarf stars using the color-magnitude diagram and luminosity function constructed from proper motion cleaned Hubble Space Telescope photometry of the globular cluster…
We present an improved treatment for the scattering of heavy dark matter from the ion constituents of a white dwarf. In the heavy dark matter regime, multiple collisions are required for the dark matter to become gravitationally captured.…
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…
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…
We present new cooling sequences, color-magnitude diagrams, and color-color diagrams for cool white dwarfs with pure hydrogen atmospheres down to an effective temperature $\te=1500$ K. We include a more detailed treatment of the physics of…
White dwarfs are the dense, burnt-out remnants of the vast majority of stars, condemned to cool over billions of years as they steadily radiate away their residual thermal energy. To first order, their atmosphere is expected to be made…
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…
It was predicted more than 40 years ago that the cores of the coolest white dwarf stars should eventually crystallize. This effect is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in white dwarf cooling models, which are now routinely used to…
We present full evolutionary calculations appropriate for the study of hydrogen-rich DA white dwarfs. This is done by evolving white dwarf progenitors from the zero age main sequence, through the core hydrogen burning phase, the helium…
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…
Mixtures of bare atomic nuclei on a nearly uniform degenerate electron background are a realistic model of matter in the interior of white dwarfs. Despite tremendous progress in understanding their phase diagrams achieved mainly via…