Related papers: Evolution of iron core white dwarfs
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…
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…
White dwarf (WD) stars evolve simply and predictably, making them reliable age indicators. However, self-consistent validation of the methods for determining WD total ages has yet to be widely performed. This work uses 1565 wide ( > 100 au)…
Recent infrared observations have revealed presence of compact (radii < R_Sun) debris disks around more than a dozen of metal-rich white dwarfs (WD), likely produced by tidal disruption of asteroids. Accretion of high-Z material from these…
Ultra-massive white dwarfs (UMWDs) with masses larger than 1.05Msun are basically believed to harbour oxygen-neon (ONe) cores. Recently, Gaia data reveals an enhancement of UMWDs on Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD), which indicates that…
Observations of heavy metal pollution in white dwarf stars indicate that metal-rich planetesimals are frequently scattered into star-grazing orbits, tidally disrupted, and accreted onto the white dwarf surface, offering direct insight into…
The timing of formation for the first planetesimals determines the mode of planetary accretion and their geophysical and compositional evolution. Astronomical observations of circumstellar discs and Solar System geochronology provide…
White dwarfs that have accreted planetary materials provide a powerful tool to probe the interiors and formation of exoplanets. In particular, the high Fe/Si ratio of some white dwarf pollutants suggests that they are fragments of bodies…
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…
As they evolve, white dwarfs undergo major changes in surface composition, a phenomenon known as spectral evolution. In particular, some stars enter the cooling sequence with helium atmospheres (type DO) but eventually develop hydrogen…
White dwarf (WD) stars are considered cosmic laboratories to study the physics of dense plasma. Furthermore, the use of WD stars as cosmic clocks to date stellar populations and main sequence companions demands an appropriate understanding…
Rotation and magnetism are increasingly recognized as important phenomena in stellar evolution. Surface magnetic fields from a few to $20{,}000\,$G have been observed and models have suggested that magnetohydrodynamic transport of angular…
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…
Most observations of polluted white dwarf atmospheres are consistent with accretion of water depleted planetary material. Among tens of known cases, merely two cases involve accretion of objects that contain a considerable mass fraction of…
The merger of two white dwarfs (WDs) creates a differentially rotating remnant which is unstable to magnetohydrodynamic instabilities. These instabilities can lead to viscous evolution on a time-scale short compared to the thermal evolution…
The galactic halo likely grew over time in part by assembling smaller galaxies, the so-called building blocks. We investigate if the properties of these building blocks are reflected in the halo white dwarf (WD) population in the Solar…
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…
Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs) are evolved massive stars, and the relative number of WC-type and WN-type WRs should vary with metallicity, providing a sensitive test of stellar evolutionary theory. The observed WC/WN ratio is much higher than that…
We present new and improved evolutionary calculations for carbon-oxygen white dwarf (WD) stars appropriate for the study of massive ZZ Ceti stars. We follow the complete evolution of massive WD progenitors from the zero-age main sequence…
Cool white dwarfs are reliable and independent stellar chronometers. The most common white dwarfs have carbon-oxygen dense cores. Consequently, the cooling ages of very cool white dwarfs sensitively depend on the adopted phase diagram of…