Pulsating white dwarf stars and asteroseismology

TL;DR

This paper reviews the properties and pulsations of white dwarf stars, highlighting recent discoveries and the use of asteroseismology to infer their internal structures and characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of white dwarf pulsations, their sub-types, and recent findings on low-mass white dwarfs, emphasizing advances in asteroseismological techniques.

Findings

Identification of various white dwarf sub-types

Recent discoveries of pulsating low-mass white dwarfs

Insights into internal structure through asteroseismology

Abstract

At present, a large number of pulsating white dwarf (WD) stars is being discovered either from Earth-based surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or through observations from space (e.g., the Kepler mission). The asteroseismological techniques allow us to infer details of internal chemical stratification, the total mass, and even the stellar rotation profile. In this paper, we first describe the basic properties of WD stars and their pulsations, as well as the different sub-types of these variables known so far. Subsequently, we describe some recent findings about pulsating low-mass WDs.