Related papers: White Dwarf Variability
We carry out high-speed photometry on 20 of the shortest-period, detached white dwarf binaries known and discover systems with eclipses, ellipsoidal variations (due to tidal deformations of the visible white dwarf), and Doppler beaming. All…
Stellar variability may originate from various phenomena such as binarity, pulsations, or rotation. These mechanisms can induce flux variations of similar magnitudes, shapes, and periods. We aim to determine mechanisms responsible for the…
There are no known examples of magnetic white dwarfs with fields larger than about 3MG paired with a non-degenerate companion in detached binary systems. The suggestion is that highly magnetic, isolated white dwarfs may originate from stars…
Massive early-type stars vary; low-mass late-type brown dwarfs vary, too. I will make a short, but illustrative, summary of my previous studies on stellar and sub-stellar photometric variability (including the discovery of the most variable…
White dwarfs are among the most common objects in the stellar halo; however, due to their low luminosity and low number density compared to the stars in the discs of the Milky Way, they are scarce in the observable volume. Hence, they are…
White dwarfs are the most common endpoints of stellar evolution. They are often found in close binary systems in which the white dwarf is accreting matter from a companion star, either via an accretion disc or channelled along the white…
The shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs (WDLF) is sensitive to the characteristic cooling time and, therefore, it can be used to test the existence of additional sources or sinks of energy such as those predicted by alternative…
White dwarf stars are the most common endpoint of stellar evolution. Therefore, these old, numerous and compact objects provide valuable information on the late stages of stellar evolution, the physics of dense plasma and the structure and…
We review ways in which observations of the changing periods of pulsating variable stars can be used to detect and directly measure their evolution. We briefly describe the two main techniques of analysis -- (O-C) analysis and wavelet…
Many magnetic white dwarfs exhibit a polarised spectrum that periodically varies as the star rotates because the magnetic field is not symmetric about the rotation axis. In this work, we report the discovery that while weakly magnetic white…
We report the discovery of a magnetic white dwarf which shows periodic variability with P=110 min, color-dependent amplitudes and a transient phase shift in the blue compared to the red lightcurve - a previously unknown type of variability…
Over the past few years monitoring programs have shown ultra cool dwarfs (UCDs) to be photometrically variable. Of the 60 sources monitored in the field and some 120 monitored in clusters, about 40% show variability in both cases. For mid…
Astrophysicists distinguish between three different types of compact stars. These are white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. The former contain matter in one of the densest forms found in the Universe. This feature, together with the…
Archival data from the WISE satellite reveals infrared flux variations of tens of per cent around numerous dusty white dwarfs. Data spanning more than seven years reveal more than half of known systems are varying in the 3.4 micron band,…
White dwarfs (WDs), the evolutionary endpoints of most stars, can form through both single-star and binary channels. While single-star evolutionary models enable reliable WD age estimates, binary evolution introduces interactions that can…
The vast majority of stars that populate the Universe will end their evolution as white-dwarf stars. Applications of white dwarfs include cosmochronology, evolution of planetary systems, and also as laboratories to study non-standard…
This work brings a wavelet analysis for 14 Kepler white dwarf stars, in order to confirm their photometric variability behavior and to search for periodicities in these targets. From the observed Kepler light curves we obtained the wavelet…
Variations in the pulsation arrival time of five independent pulsation frequencies of the DB white dwarf EC 20058-5234 individually imitate the effects of reflex motion induced by a planet or companion but are inconsistent when considered…
The spectroscopic class of subdwarf A-type (sdA) stars has come into focus in recent years because of their possible link to extremely low-mass white dwarfs, a rare class of objects resulting from binary evolution. Although most sdA stars…
Theories that attempt to unify the four fundamental interactions and alternative theories of gravity predict time and/or spatial variation of the fundamental constants of nature. Different versions of these theories predict different…