arXiv subjects

Felipe C. Wachlin

Publications and source records attributed to Felipe C. Wachlin.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

An evolutionary channel for CO-rich and pulsating He-rich subdwarfs

Recently a new class of hot subluminous stars strongly enriched in C and O have been discovered (CO-sdOs). These stars show abundances very similar to those observed in PG1159 stars but at lower temperatures. Moreover, it has been recently suggested that C and O enrichment might be the key ingredient driving the pulsations in He-rich hot subdwarf stars (He-sdBVs). Here we argue that these two types of rare stars can be explained by a variant of one of the main channels forming hot subdwarf stars. The scenario involves the formation and merging of a He-core white dwarf and a less massive CO-core white dwarf. We have constructed a simple merger models and computed their subsequent evolution. The merger products are in agreement with the surface parameters and composition of CO-sdOs. In addition, we have performed simulations including the effects of element diffusion and the excitation of pulsations. These simulations show that less massive merger products can form stellar structures that have surface parameters, abundances, and pulsation periods similar to those displayed by He-sdBVs. We conclude that the proposed scenario, or some variant of it, offers a very plausible explanation for the formation of CO-sdOs, pulsating He-sdBs and low-luminosity PG1159 stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

On the evolution of ultra-massive white dwarfs

Ultra-massive white dwarfs are powerful tools to study various physical processes in the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), type Ia supernova explosions and the theory of crystallization through white dwarf asteroseismology. Despite the interest in these white dwarfs, there are few evolutionary studies in the literature devoted to them. Here, we present new ultra-massive white dwarf evolutionary sequences that constitute an improvement over previous ones. In these new sequences, we take into account for the first time the process of phase separation expected during the crystallization stage of these white dwarfs, by relying on the most up-to-date phase diagram of dense oxygen/neon mixtures. Realistic chemical profiles resulting from the full computation of progenitor evolution during the semidegenerate carbon burning along the super-AGB phase are also considered in our sequences. Outer boundary conditions for our evolving models are provided by detailed non-gray white dwarf model atmospheres for hydrogen and helium composition. We assessed the impact of all these improvements on the evolutionary properties of ultra-massive white dwarfs, providing up-dated evolutionary sequences for these stars. We conclude that crystallization is expected to affect the majority of the massive white dwarfs observed with effective temperatures below $40\,000\, \rm K$. Moreover, the calculation of the phase separation process induced by crystallization is necessary to accurately determine the cooling age and the mass-radius relation of massive white dwarfs. We also provide colors in the GAIA photometric bands for our H-rich white dwarf evolutionary sequences on the basis of new models atmospheres. Finally, these new white dwarf sequences provide a new theoretical frame to perform asteroseismological studies on the recently detected ultra-massive pulsating white dwarfs.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Pulsation properties of ultra-massive DA white dwarf stars with ONe cores

Ultra-massive DA WD stars are expected to harbor ONe cores resulting from the progenitor evolution through the Super-AGB phase. As evolution proceeds during the WD cooling phase, a crystallization process resulting from Coulomb interactions in very dense plasmas is expected to occur, leading to the formation of a highly crystallized core. Pulsating ultra-massive WDs offer a unique opportunity to infer and test the occurrence of crystallization in WD interiors as well as physical processes related with dense plasmas. We aim to assess the adiabatic pulsation properties of ultra-massive DA WD with ONe cores. We studied the pulsation properties of ultra-massive DA WD stars with ONe cores. We employed a new set of ultra-massive WD evolutionary sequences of models with stellar masses in the range 1.10 $\leq M_{star}/M_{sun} \leq$ 1.29 computed by taking into account the complete evolution of the progenitor stars and the WD stage. When crystallization set on in our models, we took into account latent heat release and also the expected changes in the core chemical composition that are due to phase separation according to a phase diagram suitable for O and Ne plasmas. We computed nonradial pulsation g-modes of our sequences of models at the ZZ Ceti phase by taking into account a solid core. We explored the impact of crystallization on their pulsation properties, in particular, the structure of the period spectrum and the distribution of the period spacings. We find that it would be possible, in principle, to discern whether a WD has a nucleus made of CO or a nucleus of ONe by studying the spacing between periods. The features found in the period-spacing diagrams could be used as a seismological tool to discern the core composition of ultra-massive ZZ Ceti stars, something that should be complemented with detailed asteroseismic analysis using the individual observed periods.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Evolutionary sequences for hydrogen-deficient white dwarfs

We present a set of full evolutionary sequences for white dwarfs with hydrogen-deficient atmospheres. We take into account the evolutionary history of the progenitor stars, all the relevant energy sources involved in the cooling, element diffusion in the very outer layers, and outer boundary conditions provided by new and detailed non-gray white dwarf model atmospheres for pure helium composition. These model atmospheres are based on the most up-to-date physical inputs. Our calculations extend down to very low effective temperatures, of $\sim 2\,500$~K, provide a homogeneous set of evolutionary cooling tracks that are appropriate for mass and age determinations of old hydrogen-deficient white dwarfs, and represent a clear improvement over previous efforts, which were computed using gray atmospheres.

astro-ph.SR↗