The impact of pre-white dwarf evolution on the pulsational properties and asteroseismological inferences of ZZ Ceti stars

TL;DR

This study investigates how uncertainties in the evolutionary history of white dwarf progenitors affect the pulsation properties and asteroseismological inferences of ZZ Ceti stars, emphasizing the importance of considering prior evolution uncertainties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of how variations in progenitor evolution impact the chemical structure and pulsation spectra of ZZ Ceti stars, using full evolutionary models.

Findings

Uncertainties in progenitor evolution significantly alter g-mode pulsation periods.

TP-AGB phase processes are most influential on pulsational properties.

Accounting for evolutionary uncertainties is crucial in asteroseismological studies.

Abstract

ZZ Ceti stars are pulsating white dwarfs with a carbon-oxygen core (or possibly ONe for the most massive stars) build up during the core helium burning (CHeB) and thermally pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phases. Through the interpretation of their pulsation periods by means of asteroseismology, details about their origin and evolution can be inferred. The whole pulsation spectrum exhibited by ZZ Ceti stars strongly depend on the inner chemical structure. At present, there are several processes affecting the chemical profiles that are still not accurately determined. We present a study of the impact of current uncertainties in the evolution of white dwarf progenitor on the expected pulsation properties and on the stellar parameters inferred from asteroseismological fits of ZZ Ceti stars. Our analysis is based on a set of carbon-oxygen core white dwarf models that are derived from full evolutionary computations from the ZAMS to the ZZ Ceti domain. We considered models in which we varied the number of thermal pulses, the amount of overshooting, and the carbon-alpha reaction rate within their uncertainties. We explore the impact of these major uncertainties in prior evolution on the chemical structure and expected pulsation spectrum. We find that these uncertainties yield significant changes in the g-mode pulsation periods being those found during the TP-AGB phase the most relevant for the pulsational properties and the asteroseismological derived stellar parameters of ZZ Ceti stars. We conclude that the uncertainties in the white dwarf progenitor evolution should be taken into account in detailed asteroseismological analyses of these pulsating stars.