Speaker: Weston Hall (ISU)

Host: Charles Kerton

Title: Asteroseismology of White Dwarf Stars Observed with NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope

Abstract: All single stars that are born with masses up to 8.5–10 solar masses will end their lives as white dwarf (WD) stars. In this evolutionary stage, WDs enter the cooling sequence, where the stars radiate away their thermal energy and are basically cooling. As these stars cool, they reach temperatures and conditions that cause the stars to pulsate. Using differential photometry to produce light curves, we can determine the observed periods of pulsation from the WD. Using the White Dwarf Evolutionary Code (WDEC), we created a novel approach to WD asteroseismology using WDEC models, and we performed seismological studies for 29 observed DAVs in the Kepler and K2 photometric data sets, 25 of which have never been analyzed using these observations and 19 of which have never been seismically analyzed in any capacity before. Learning about the internal structure of WDs places important constraints on the WD cooling sequence and our overall understanding of stellar evolution for low-mass stars.