Progress in Modeling Magnetic White Dwarfs

Abstract

The analysis of magnetic white dwarfs has made considerable progress since the last white dwarf workshop: 1. It could be shown that neither the magnetic white dwarf Grw +70°8247 (Jordan & Friedrich, 2001) nor LP 790-29 (Jordan & Friedrich 2002, Beuermann et al. 2002) are fast rotators (P < 10 min) but are rotating slowly (P > 20 years). 2. Automatic fitting procedures have been developed which can be used to derive the geometries of complex magnetic fields for rotating white dwarfs (see Euchner et al. 2002, Euchner et al., these proceedings, Gänsicke et al, these proceedings). 3. First models with consistent energy values and oscillator strengths for neutral helium in strong magnetic fields have been calculated and can be compared to observed spectra and polarization data.