Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Physical Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
5-20-2007
Abstract/Description
Metals in the photospheres of white dwarfs with Teff between 12,000 and 25,000 K should gravitationally settle out of these atmospheres in 1 ̶ 2 weeks. Temporal variations in the line strengths of these metals could provide a direct measurement of episodic metal accretion. Using archival VLT and Keck spectroscopy, we find evidence that the DAZd white dwarf G29-38 shows significant changes in its Ca П K line strength. At the two best-observed epochs, we find that the Ca line equivalent width (EW) = 165 ̶ 4 mǺ (in 1996.885) and 280 ± 8 mǺ (in 1999.653), which is an increase of 70%. We consider the effect that pulsation has on the Ca EWs for this known variable star, and find that it adds an error of <1 >mǺ to these measurements. Calcium line strengths at other observational epochs support variations with timescales as short as 2 weeks. These Ca EW variations indicate that the metal accretion process inG29-38, presumably from its debris disk, is episodic on timescales of a few weeks or less, and thus, the accretion is not dominated by Poynting-Robertson drag from an optically thin, continuous disk, which has a timescale of ̴1 yr.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc.
Scholarly Commons Citation
von Hippel, T., & Thompson, S. E. (2007). Discovery of Photospheric Calcium Line-Strength Variations in the Dazd White Dwarf G29-38. The Astrophysical Journal, 661(1). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/publication/248
Additional Information
Dr. von Hippel was not affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the time this paper was published.