1,721,361 research outputs found
White dwarf stars
White dwarfs are the most common end-product of stellarevolution, and as such contain valuable information about the evolutionof individual stars as well as about the star formation history andsubsequent evolution in our Galaxy. In this lecture, I describe the main structural and evolutive properties of white dwarfs. Potential applications ofthese stars to other fields of astrophysics are shortly described.Fil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentin
Short-period g-mode pulsations in low-mass white dwarfs triggered by H-shell burning
The detection of pulsations in white dwarfs with low mass offers the possibility of probing their internal structures through asteroseismology and placing constraints on the binary evolutionary processes involved in their formation. In this Letter, we assess the impact of stable H burning on the pulsational stability properties of low-mass He-core white dwarf models resulting from binary star evolutionary calculations. We found that besides a dense spectrum of unstable radial modes and nonradial g and p modes driven by the κ mechanism due to the partial ionization of H in the stellar envelope, some unstable g modes with short pulsation periods are also powered by H burning via the ɛ mechanism of mode driving. This is the first time that ɛ destabilized modes are found in models representative of cool white dwarf stars. The short periods recently detected in the pulsating low-mass white dwarf SDSS J111215.82+111745.0 could constitute the first evidence of the existence of stable H burning in these stars, in particular in the so-called extremely low-mass white dwarfs.Fil: Corsico, Alejandro Hugo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata; Argentina; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata; Argentina; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentin
Stellar Structure
In this chapter the equations of stellar structure are introduced. Up-to-date descriptions of the most relevant microphysics needed to build reliable stellar configurations are also provided. These include the equation of state, nuclear reactions, opacities, and other less frequently discussed physical processes, such as diffusion and radiative levitation. The necessary numerical techniques currently employed to build evolutionary stellar models as well as the otherwise necessary boundary conditions needed to integrate the equations of stellar structure are also addressed. Finally, an overview of the current state-of-the-art modeling is given.Fil: García Berro, Enrique. Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya; EspañaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; Españ
A nonadiabatic oscillation study of DB white dwarfs
A self-consistent abundance diffusion treatment in the evolution of cooling white dwarfs permitted a study of the effect of elemental segregation in nonadiabatic, nonradial stability computations. In particular, mode trapping manifesting itself in cyclically varying period separations behaved differently from its appearance in the damping/excitation rates. Another aspect of the investigation concerned the effect of heavy-element traces in homogeneous DB white-dwarf envelopes on their pulsational instability domain. The stellar models are computed with the CGM convection approach; the study can therefore be considered as a test of its performance in nonradial stability analyses.Fil: Gautschy, Alfred. Ferrachstrasse. 1; SuizaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica la Plata; Argentin
The born-again (very late thermal pulse) scenario revisited: the mass of the remnants and implications for V4334 Sgr
We present 1D numerical simulations of the very late thermal pulse (VLTP) scenario for a wide range of remnant masses. We show that by taking into account the different possible remnant masses, the observed evolution of V4334 Sgr (a.k.a. Sakurai’s object) can be reproduced within the standard 1D mixing length theory (MLT) stellar evolutionary models without the inclusion of any ad hoc reduced mixing efficiency. Our simulations hint at a consistent picture with present observations of V4334 Sgr. From energetics, and within the standard MLT approach, we show that low-mass remnants (M 0.6 M) are expected to behave markedly differently from higher mass remnants (M 0.6 M) in the sense that the latter remnants are not expected to expand significantly as a result of the violent H-burning that takes place during the VLTP. We also assess the discrepancy in the born-again times obtained by different authors by comparing the energy that can be liberated by H-burning during the VLTP event.Fil: Miller Bertolami, Marcelo Miguel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentin
Fingering convection in accreting hydrogen white dwarf
The accretion of heavy material from debris disk on the surface of hydrogen-rich white dwarfs induces a double diffusivity instability known as the fingering convection. It leads to an efficient extra mixing which brings the accreted material deeper in the star than by considering only mixing in the surface dynamical convection zone, in a time scale much shorter than that of gravitational settling. We performed numerical simulations of a continuous accretion of heavy material having a bulk Earth composition on the two well studied DAZ and ZZ Ceti pulsators GD 133 and G 29-38. We find that the existence of fingering convection implies much larger accretion rates to explain the observed abundances than previous estimates based on the standard mixing length theory and gravitational settling only.Fil: Wachlin, Felipe Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Vauclair, S.. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Vauclair, G.. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaAn International Conference in Memory of Professor Jean-Paul Zahn's Great Scientific AchievementsParísFranciaInstitut d'Astrophysique de Pari
The explosion of supernova 2011fe in the frame of the core-degenerate scenario (Letter)
We argue that the properties of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2011fe can be best explained within the frame of the core-degenerate (CD) scenario. In the CD scenario, a white dwarf (WD) merges with the core of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star and forms a rapidly rotating WD, with a mass close to and above the critical mass for explosion. Rapid rotation prevents immediate collapse and/or explosion. Spinning down over a time of 0-1010 yr brings the WD to explosion. A very long delayed explosion to post-crystallization phase, which lasts for about 2 × 109 yr, leads to the formation of a highly
carbon-enriched outer layer. This can account for the carbon-rich composition of the fastest-moving ejecta of SN 2011fe. In reaching the conclusion that the CD scenario best explains the observed properties of SN 2011fe, we consider both its specific properties, like a very compact exploding object and carbon-rich composition of the fastest-moving ejecta, and the general properties of SNe Ia.Fil: Soker, Noam. Technion - Israel Institute Of Technology; IsraelFil: García Berro, Enrique. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; EspañaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentin
On the excitation of PG1159-type pulsations
Stability properties are presented of dipole and quadrupole nonradial oscillation modes of model stars that experienced a late helium shell flash on their way to the white-dwarf cooling domain. The computed instability domains are compared with the observed hot variable central stars of planetary nebulae and the GW Vir pulsators.Fil: Gautschy, Alfred. International Astronomical Union; SuizaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Saio, Hirouki. Tohoku University; Japó
Importance of tides for periastron precession in eccentric Neutron Star-White Dwarf Binaries
Although not nearly as numerous as binaries with two white dwarfs, eccentric neutron star–white dwarf (NS–WD) binaries are important gravitational-wave (GW) sources for the next generation of space-based detectors sensitive to low frequency waves. Here we investigate periastron precession in these sources as a result of general relativistic, tidal, and rotational effects; such precession is expected to be detectable for at least some of the detected binaries of this type. Currently, two eccentric NS–WD binaries are known in the galactic field, PSR J1141−6545 and PSR B2303+46, both of which have orbits too wide to be relevant in their current state to GW observations. However, population synthesis studies predict the existence of a significant Galactic population of such systems. Though small in most of these systems, we find that tidally induced periastron precession becomes important when tides contribute to more than 3% of the total precession rate. For these systems, accounting for tides when analyzing periastron precession rate measurements can improve estimates of the inferred WD component mass and, in some cases, will prevent us from misclassifying the object. However, such systems are rare, due to rapid orbital decay. To aid the inclusion of tidal effects when using periastron precession as a mass measurement tool, we derive a function that relates the WD radius and periastron precession constant to the WD mass.Fil: Sravan, N.. Northwestern University; Estados UnidosFil: Valsecchi, F.. Northwestern University; Estados UnidosFil: Kalogera, V.. Northwestern University; Estados UnidosFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata; Argentin
On the challenging variability of LS IV-14°116: pulsational instabilities excited by the epsilon-mechanism
We investigate the pulsation driving mechanism responsible for the long-period photometric variations observed in LS IV-14°116, a subdwarf B star showing a He-enriched atmospheric composition. To this end, we perform detailed nonadiabatic pulsation computations over fully evolutionary post-He-core-flash stellar structure models, appropriate for hot subdwarf stars at evolutionary phases previous to the He-core burning stage. We found that the variability of LS IV-14°116 can be attributed to non-radial g-mode pulsations excited by the epsilon-mechanism acting in the He-burning shells that appear before the star settles in the He-core burning stage. Even more interestingly, our results show that LS IV-14°116 could be the first known pulsating star in which the epsilon-mechanism of mode excitation is operating. Last but not the least, we find that the period range of destabilized modes is sensitive to the exact location of the burning shell, something that might help in distinguishing between the different evolutionary scenarios proposed for the formation of this star.Fil: Miller Bertolami, Marcelo Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de la Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Corsico, Alejandro Hugo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de la Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de la Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentin
- …
