Discovery of Dipolar Chromospheres in Two White Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study discovers dipolar surface spots in two cool magnetic white dwarfs, suggesting they generate intrinsic chromospheres as they cool, with observed variability indicating complex magnetic and atmospheric phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of dipolar chromospheres in white dwarfs through photometric variability analysis and modeling of surface spots.

Findings

Detection of large, circular surface spots in two white dwarfs.

Photometric variability increases toward blue wavelengths.

Complex spot configurations challenge simple antipodal models.

Abstract

This paper reports the ULTRACAM discovery of dipolar surface spots in two cool magnetic white dwarfs with Balmer emission lines, while a third system exhibits a single spot, similar to the prototype GD 356. The light curves are modeled with simple, circular, isothermal dark spots, yielding relatively large regions with minimum angular radii of 20 deg. For those stars with two light curve minima, the dual spots are likely observed at high inclination (or colatitude), however, identical and antipodal spots cannot simultaneously reproduce both the distinct minima depths and the phases of the light curve maxima. The amplitudes of the multi-band photometric variability reported here are all several times larger than that observed in the prototype GD 356; nevertheless, all DAHe stars with available data appear to have light curve amplitudes that increase toward the blue in correlated ratios. This behavior is consistent with cool spots that produce higher contrasts at shorter wavelengths, with remarkably similar spectral properties given the diversity of magnetic field strengths and rotation rates. These findings support the interpretation that some magnetic white dwarfs generate intrinsic chromospheres as they cool, and that no external source is responsible for the observed temperature inversion. Spectroscopic time-series data for DAHe stars is paramount for further characterization, where it is important to obtain well-sampled data, and consider wavelength shifts, equivalent widths, and spectropolarimetry.