Asteroseismology of the Kepler field DBV White Dwarf - It's a hot one!

TL;DR

This paper presents an asteroseismic analysis of a hot DBV white dwarf in the Kepler field, revealing its higher temperature and potential for testing neutrino emission models through long-term monitoring.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed pulsation spectrum of this star and suggests its temperature is higher than previous estimates, impacting models of stellar evolution and particle physics.

Findings

Star is hotter (29200 K) than previous estimates (24900 K).

Analysis of 5 pulsation modes from Kepler data.

Potential to measure plasmon neutrino emission over years.

Abstract

We present an asteroseismic analysis of the helium atmosphere white dwarf (a DBV) recently found in the field of view of the Kepler satellite. We analyze the 5-mode pulsation spectrum that was produced based on one month of high cadence Kepler data. The pulsational characteristics of the star and the asteroseismic analysis strongly suggest that the star is hotter (29200 K) than the 24900 K suggested by model fits to the low S/N survey spectrum of the object. This result has profound and exciting implications for tests of the Standard Model of particle physics. Hot DBVs are expected to lose over half of their energy through the emission of plasmon neutrinos. Continuous monitoring of the star with the Kepler satellite over the course of 3 to 5 years is not only very likely to yield more modes to help constrain the asteroseismic fits, but also allow us to obtain a rate of change of any stable mode and therefore measure the emission of plasmon neutrinos.