The Latest Results on Accreting Pulsating White Dwarfs (Abstract)

Volume 39 number 1 (2011)

Paula Szkody

Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; szkody@astro.washington.edu

Abstract

(Abstract only) In the last few years, ground- and space-based data on the dozen known accreting pulsating white dwarfs present in cataclysmic variables have produced some surprising results. These include the finding that the instability strip is wider than for non-accreting white dwarfs and that the pulsations can disappear. One of the reasons for the disappearance is the heating of the white dwarf following a dwarf nova outburst, which moves it out of the instability strip. We will show our results from following three systems after their outbursts (GW Lib, V455 And, and SDSS0745+45) and how these objects differ in resuming their pre-outburst pulsation characteristics.