Short-period $g$-mode pulsations in low-mass white dwarfs triggered by H shell burning

TL;DR

This study reveals that stable hydrogen burning can excite short-period g-mode pulsations in low-mass white dwarfs, providing new insights into their internal structure and evolutionary history.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time that the ε-mechanism can drive unstable g-modes in cool, low-mass white dwarf models with stable hydrogen burning.

Findings

Unstable g-modes driven by the ε-mechanism are found in models with stable H burning.

Short-period pulsations observed in some low-mass white dwarfs may indicate ongoing H burning.

The results suggest a new asteroseismic probe of hydrogen burning in white dwarfs.

Abstract

The detection of pulsations in white dwarfs with low mass offers the possibility of probing their internal structure through asteroseismology and place constraints on the binary evolutionary processes involved in their formation. In this paper 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, apart from a dense spectrum of unstable radial modes and nonradial $g$- and $p$-modes driven by the $\kappa$-mechanism due to the partial ionization of H in the stellar envelope, some unstable $g$-modes with short pulsation periods are powered also by H burning via the $\varepsilon$-mechanism of mode driving. This is the first time that $\varepsilon$-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.