New Pulsating DB White Dwarf Stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of nine new pulsating DB white dwarf stars from SDSS data, expanding the known sample and enabling studies of white dwarf evolution and neutrino physics through asteroseismology.

Contribution

The paper presents the identification of nine new DBV pulsators from SDSS spectra, doubling the known population and providing new data for stellar evolution and neutrino physics research.

Findings

Nine new DBV pulsators discovered from SDSS data.

Expanded the known sample of DBVs, facilitating evolutionary studies.

Provided lightcurves and power spectra for the new pulsators.

Abstract

We are searching for new He atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DBVs) based on the newly found white dwarf stars from the spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. DBVs pulsate at hotter temperature ranges than their better known cousins, the H atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DAVs or ZZ Ceti stars). Since the evolution of white dwarf stars is characterized by cooling, asteroseismological studies of DBVs give us opportunities to study white dwarf structure at a different evolutionary stage than the DAVs. The hottest DBVs are thought to have neutrino luminosities exceeding their photon luminosities (Winget et al. 2004), a quantity measurable through asteroseismology. Therefore, they can also be used to study neutrino physics in the stellar interior. So far we have discovered nine new DBVs, doubling the number of previously known DBVs. Here we report the new pulsators' lightcurves and power spectra.