A Survey for Photometric Variability in Isolated Magnetic White Dwarfs -- Measuring their Spin Periods

Details A Survey for Photometric Variability in Isolated Magnetic White Dwarfs -- Measuring their Spin Periods A Survey for Photometric Variability in Isolated Magnetic White Dwarfs -- Measuring their Spin Periods

Sep 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aspc..372..183b&link_type=abstract

15th European Workshop on White Dwarfs ASP Conference Series, Vol. 372, proceedings of the conference held 7-11 August, 2006 in

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

2

Scientific paper

We present the initial findings of a photometric survey of isolated magnetic white dwarfs (MHDs) carried out with the 1.0m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope. Of our sample of 30 MWDs, we have observed variability in 17 (57%) over our observed timescales (minutes to years), with a further 11 requiring more data, and two that are non-variable at the 1% level. In total we have discovered possible variability in 15 targets that has not been reported before in the literature, and we have measured the spin period of five objects in our sample to within a few percent. We find no correlation between spin period, mass or temperature, but there may be a weak negative correlation between period and field strength for the short-period targets. We have identified 14 MWDs with low field strengths and low temperatures, which are candidates for having star spots on their surfaces and should be followed up with polarimetry. We have also found that three low-field, high temperature MWDs are unexpectedly variable, with no obvious mechanism to cause this.

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