Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T10:21:08.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Probing the Extraordinary Ends of Ordinary Stars: White Dwarf Seismology with the Whole Earth Telescope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Steven D. Kawaler
Steven D. Kawaler*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA 50011USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

During the final evolution of most stars, they shed their outer skin and expose their core of the hot ashes of nuclear burning. As these hot and very dense cores cool into white dwarf stars, they go through episodes of multiperiodic, nonradial g-mode pulsation. The tools of stellar seismology allow us to use the pulsation spectra as powerful probes into the deep interiors of these stars. Progress in white dwarf seismology has required significant international cooperation, since another consequence of the complex pulsations of these stars is decoding the true pulsation frequencies requires a coordinated global effort involving high-speed photometric observations. Through one such effort, the Whole Earth Telescope project, we have located subsurface composition changes, detected differential rotation and magnetic fields, and measured fundamental quantities such as stellar mass, luminosity, and distance to extraordinary accuracy.

Type
Part 1. The Scientific Programme
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 155: Astrophysical Applications of Stellar Pulsation , 1995 , pp. 81 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1995

References

Appleton, P.N., Kawaler, S.D., & Eitter, J.J. 1993, AJ, 106, 1973 Google Scholar
Bergeron, P., et al. 1995, ApJS, in pressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, H., Ciardullo, R., & Kawaler, S.D. 1993, Acta Astr, 43, 425 Google Scholar
Bond, H.E., Grauer, A.D., Green, R.F., & Liebert, J. 1984, ApJ, 279, 751 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, H.E. et al. 1995, ApJ, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Bradley, P.A., & Winget, D.E. 1991, ApJS, 75, 463 Google Scholar
Bradley, P.A., Winget, D.E., & Wood, M.A. 1993, ApJ, 406, 661 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, P., & Winget, D. 1994, ApJ, 430, 850 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brassard, P., Fontaine, G., Wesemael, F., & Hansen, C.J. 1992a, ApJS, 80, 369 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brassard, P., Fontaine, G., Wesemael, F., & Tassoul, M. 1992b, ApJS, 81, 747 Google Scholar
Brickhill, A.J. 1975, MNRAS, 170, 404 Google Scholar
Clemens, J.C. 1994, Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas Google Scholar
Clemens, J.C. 1995, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Dehner, B.T. 1995, Ph.D. thesis, Iowa State University Google Scholar
Dehner, B.T., & Kawaler, S.D. 1995, ApJ, in pressGoogle Scholar
Dreizier, S., et al. 1995, in 9th European Workshop on White Dwarf Stars, ed. Koester, D. & Werner, K. (Dordrecht: Kluwer), in pressGoogle Scholar
Jones, P.W., Pesnell, W.D., Hansen, C.J., & Kawaler, S.D. 1989, ApJ, 336, 403 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D. 1987, in Stellar Pulsation: A Memorial to John P. Cox, eds. Cox, A., Sparks, W., & Starrfield, S., (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 367 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D. 1988, in IAU Symposium 123, Advances of Helio- and Asteroseismology, ed. Christensen-Dalsgaard, J. & Frandsen, S. (Dordrecht: Reidel), 329 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D., & Hansen, C.J. 1989, in I.A.U. Colloquium #114: White Dwarfs, ed. Wegner, G., (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 97.Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D., & Weiss, P. 1990, in Proc. of the Oji International Seminar, Progress of Seismology of the Sun and Stars, ed. Osaki, Y.,& Shibihashi, H., (Berlin: Springer), 431 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D. 1991, in Confrontation Between Stellar Pulsation and Evolution, ed Cacciari, C. & Clementini, G., (Provo: PASP), 494 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D., & Bradley, P.A. 1994, ApJ, 427, 415 Google Scholar
Kawaler, S.D., et al. 1995, ApJ, in pressGoogle Scholar
McGraw, J.T., Starrfield, S.G., Liebert, J., & Green, R.F. 1979, in IAU Colloq. 53, White Dwarfs and Variable Degenerate Stars, ed. Van Horn, H.M. & Weidemann, V., (Rochester: Univ. of Rochester), 377 Google Scholar
Motch, C., Werner, K., & Pakull, M.W. 1993, A&A, 268, 561 Google Scholar
Nather, R.E., Winget, D.E., Clemens, J.C., Hansen, C.J., & Hine, B.P. 1990, ApJ, 361, 309 Google Scholar
Shaw, R. & Kaler, J. 1985, ApJ, 295, 537 Google Scholar
Tassoul, M., Fontaine, G., & Winget, D.E. 1990, ApJS, 72, 335 Google Scholar
Thejl, P., Vennes, S., & Shipman, H.L. 1991, ApJ, 370 355 Google Scholar
Vauclair, G., Belmonte, J.A., Pfeiffer, B., Chevreton, M., Dolez, N., & Motch, C. 1993, A&A, 267, L35 Google Scholar
Vauclair, G., et al. 1995, ApJ, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Werner, K., Heber, U., & Hunger, K. 1991, A&A, 244, 437 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E. 1981, Ph.D. thesis, University of Rochester Google Scholar
Winget, D.E., Van Horn, H.M., & Hansen, C.J. 1981, ApJ, 245, L33 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E., Robinson, E.L., Nather, R.E., & Fontaine, G. 1982, ApJ, 262, L11 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E., Van Horn, H.M., Tassoul, M., Hansen, C., & Fontaine, G. 1983, ApJ, 268, L33 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E. 1988, in IAU Symposium 123, Advances in Helio- and Asteroseismology, ed. Christensen-Dalsgaard, J. & Frandsen, S., (Dordrecht: Reidel), 305 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E., et al. 1991, ApJ, 378, 326 Google Scholar
Winget, D.E., et al. 1994, ApJ, 430, 839.Google Scholar
Wood, M.A. 1992, ApJ, 386, 539 CrossRefGoogle Scholar