Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology

TL;DR

Pulsating white dwarf stars serve as precise tools in asteroseismology, enabling insights into galactic history, stellar physics, and fundamental cosmological questions through observational and theoretical advancements.

Contribution

This paper reviews recent progress in using pulsating white dwarf stars for precision asteroseismology, highlighting new observational techniques and theoretical models that enhance our understanding of stellar and cosmic phenomena.

Findings

Calibration of white dwarf cosmochronology

Measurement of stellar masses and rotation rates

Insights into interior crystallization and dark matter

Abstract

Galactic history is written in the white dwarf stars. Their surface properties hint at interiors composed of matter under extreme conditions. In the forty years since their discovery, pulsating white dwarf stars have moved from side-show curiosities to center stage as important tools for unraveling the deep mysteries of the Universe. Innovative observational techniques and theoretical modeling tools have breathed life into precision asteroseismology. We are just learning to use this powerful tool, confronting theoretical models with observed frequencies and their time rate-of-change. With this tool, we calibrate white dwarf cosmochronology; we explore equations of state; we measure stellar masses, rotation rates, and nuclear reaction rates; we explore the physics of interior crystallization; we study the structure of the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, and we test models of dark matter. The white dwarf pulsations are at once the heartbeat of galactic history and a window into unexplored and exotic physics.