Abstract
Preliminary results of a photometric survey of cool white dwarf stars are presented. CCD-based time series observations have been obtained for white dwarfs (WDs) with absolute magnitude M v > +15 and color 0.5 < V−I < 1.3. Several hours of continuous observations were obtained for each target in an attempt to establish the frequency of microvariability in the temperature regime where collisionally induced absorption due to molecular hydrogen is possible. The minimum time resolution achieved for individual objects is 10–300 sec, depending upon target brightness. In the sample of several dozen cool WDs observed so far, no periodic variability larger than ∼2% has been detected. Such objects have good potential to be used as faint (V > +17) OIR flux standards for large aperture telescopes.
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Oswalt, T.D., Johnston, K., Rudkin, M., Bochanski, J., Schaefer, J., Wennerstrom, E. (2005). A Search for Variability in Cool White Dwarf Stars. In: Sion, E.M., Vennes, S., Shipman, H.L. (eds) White Dwarfs: Cosmological and Galactic Probes. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 332. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3725-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3725-2_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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