New insights on the origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs

Details New insights on the origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs New insights on the origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs

Nov 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aipc.1273...79w&link_type=abstract

17TH EUROPEAN WHITE DWARF WORKSHOP. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1273, pp. 79-84 (2010).

Other

White Dwarfs, Magnetic Field Effects, Stellar Evolution, Polarimetry, Faint Blue Stars, White Dwarfs, Degenerate Stars, Nuclei Of Planetary Nebulae, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Stellar Structure, Interiors, Evolution, Nucleosynthesis, Ages, Photometric, Polarimetric, And Spectroscopic Instrumentation

Scientific paper

There have been two hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the high field magnetic white dwarfs (HFMWDS:B~106-109 G). The first is that they descend from the magnetic Ap and Bp stars (M>1.7 Msolar) somehow conserving their magnetic flux during stellar evolution right through to the white dwarf phase (``the fossil field hypothesis''). The second is that they form from a merger during the common envelope phase of binary evolution that would normally lead to a pre-Cataclysmic Variable. We discuss the pros and cons of the two hypotheses and conclude that both remain viable given the current observational constraints and our theoretical understanding of magnetic fields in evolving stars. The magnetic fields of the low field white dwarfs (LFMWDS:B~103-106 G), on the other hand, are likely to be fields generated in convective dynamos in the immediate pre-white dwarf phase of evolution, or generated in contemporary dynamos along the cooling sequence of the white dwarfs in temperature ranges where extensive outer convective envelopes develop.

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