Empirical Determination of Convection Parameters in White Dwarfs. I. Whole Earth Telescope Observations of EC14012-1446

Provencal, J. L.; Montgomery, M. H.; Kanaan, A.; Thompson, S. E.; Dalessio, J.; Shipman, H. L.; Childers, D.; Clemens, J. C.; Rosen, R.; Henrique, P.; Bischoff-Kim, A.; Strickland, W.; Chandler, D.; Walter, B.; Watson, T. K.; Castanheira, B.; Wang, S.; Handler, G.; Wood, M.; Vennes, S.; Nemeth, P.; Kepler, S. O.; Reed, M.; Nitta, A.; Kleinman, S. J.; Brown, T.; Kim, S.-L.; Sullivan, D.; Chen, W. P.; Yang, M.; Shih, C. Y.; Jiang, X. J.; Sergeev, A. V.; Maksim, A.; Janulis, R.; Baliyan, K. S.; Vats, H. O.; Zola, S.; Baran, A.; Winiarski, M.; Ogloza, W.; Paparo, M.; Bognar, Z.; Papics, P.; Kilkenny, D.; Sefako, R.; Buckley, D.; Loaring, N.; Kniazev, A.; Silvotti, R.; Galleti, S.; Nagel, T.; Vauclair, G.; Dolez, N.; Fremy, J. R.; Perez, J.; Almenara, J. M.; Fraga, L.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 751, Issue 2, article id. 91 (2012).

Advertised on:
6
2012
Number of authors
58
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
39
Refereed citations
30
Description
We report on an analysis of 308.3 hr of high-speed photometry targeting the pulsating DA white dwarf EC14012-1446. The data were acquired with the Whole Earth Telescope during the 2008 international observing run XCOV26. The Fourier transform of the light curve contains 19 independent frequencies and numerous combination frequencies. The dominant peaks are 1633.907, 1887.404, and 2504.897 μHz. Our analysis of the combination amplitudes reveals that the parent frequencies are consistent with modes of spherical degree l = 1. The combination amplitudes also provide m identifications for the largest amplitude parent frequencies. Our seismology analysis, which includes 2004-2007 archival data, confirms these identifications, provides constraints on additional frequencies, and finds an average period spacing of 41 s. Building on this foundation, we present nonlinear fits to high signal-to-noise light curves from the SOAR 4.1 m, McDonald 2.1 m, and KPNO 2 m telescopes. The fits indicate a time-averaged convective response timescale of τ0 = 99.4 ± 17 s, a temperature exponent N = 85 ± 6.2, and an inclination angle of θ i = 32fdg9 ± 3fdg2. We present our current empirical map of the convective response timescale across the DA instability strip. Based on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, e Inovação (MCTI) da República Federativa do Brasil, the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).
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