Constraints from Parallaxes and Average Period Spacings in the Asteroseismic Study of Eight Hydrogen-atmosphere Pulsating White Dwarfs

Abstract

With space missions such as Kepler, TESS, and Gaia, we have a wealth of data on pulsating white dwarfs that can be leveraged in white dwarf asteroseismology. We address the question of the proportion of white dwarfs with thin hydrogen layers versus those with thick hydrogen layers. We also provide a mass–radius relation for carbon–oxygen-core, hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs. Such a relationship can be used in conjunction with magnitudes and distance measurements to constrain the mass and effective temperature of the white dwarfs. We select nine hydrogen-atmosphere pulsating white dwarfs for their rich pulsation spectra. From such pulsation spectra, we can derive the asymptotic period spacing, which in turn allows us to determine the thickness of the hydrogen and helium envelope of the models, without having to perform period-by-period fitting. We find that the majority of the white dwarfs have thicker hydrogen layers and we determine an upper limit of M r = 1–10−2.2 for the location of the base of the helium layer, in accordance with stellar evolution models. We confirm a finding from earlier studies that used a mass–radius relation and Gaia data to determine the effective temperatures of white dwarfs. The Gaia data systematically point to white dwarfs of lower effective temperature than indicated by the spectroscopy. Our results also support the hypothesis that white dwarfs with thicker hydrogen layers are more common than those with thinner layers.