Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Old Pulsators: White Dwarfs and Their Immediate Precursors

  • Published:
Astrophysics and Space Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There are now fully six classes of pulsators among white dwarfsand their immediate precursors among central stars of planetarynebulae and on the extended horizontal branch.In this review, we outline those observational and theoreticalconsiderations that link them together and set them apart fromother kinds of pulsating stars.We summarize some select astrophysical puzzles to which studiesof such pulsators might speak, and we discuss current applicationsin the fields of atomic, nuclear, and neutrino physics.Finally, we suggest how future observing programs might solve somegeneral problems common not only to the white dwarf and pre-whitedwarf pulsators but to many types of variable stars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Charpinet, S., Fontaine, G. and Brassard, P.: 1996, ApJ 471, L103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fontaine, G. and Wesemael, F.: 1987, in: A.G.D. Philip, D.S. Hayes and J. Liebert (eds.), Proc. IAU Colloq. 95: The Second Conference on Faint Blue Stars, Davis (Schenectady), 319.

  • Kawaler, S.D. and Bradley, P.A.: 1994, ApJ 427, 415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kepler, S.O. et al.: 2000, ApJ 534, L185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilkenny, D., Koen, C., O'Donoghue, D. and Stobie, R.S.: 1997, MNRAS 285, 640.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koen, C., O'Donoghue, D., Kilkenny, D. and Stobie, R.S.: 1998, in: F.-L. Deubner, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard and D. Kurtz (eds.), Proc. IAU Symp. 185: New Eyes to See Inside the Sun and Stars, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Dordrecht), 361.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe, T.S., Salaris, M. and Winget, D.E.: 2002, ApJ 573, 803.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery, M.H. and Winget, D.E.: 1999, ApJ 526, 976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nitta, A., Kanaan, A., Kepler, S.O., Koester, D., Montgomery, M.H. and Winget, D.E.: 2000, Baltic Astron. 9, 97.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Brien, M.S. and Kawaler, S.D.: 2000, ApJ 539, 372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuille et al.: 2000, ApJ 314, 689.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winget, D.E., Robinson, E.L. and Nather, R.E.: 1982, ApJ 262, L11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winget, D.E. et al.: 1991, ApJ 378, 376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winget, D.E. et al.: 1994, ApJ 430, 839.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winget, D.E., Kepler, S.O., Kanaan, A., Montgomery, M.H. and Giovannini, O.: 1997, ApJ 487, L191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, M.A. and Oswalt, T.D.: 1998, ApJ 497, 870.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Y.: 2001, MNRAS 323, 248.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomy Department, Yale University, PO Box 208101, New Haven, CT, 06520-8101, USA

    M. Sean O'Brien

Authors
  1. M. Sean O'Brien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

O'Brien, M.S. Old Pulsators: White Dwarfs and Their Immediate Precursors. Astrophysics and Space Science 284, 45–52 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023272209288

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023272209288

Keywords

Search

Navigation