WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations

Bischoff-Kim, Agnès; Montgomery, Michael H.

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e

Title: WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations

Journal Article · 10 April 2018 · The Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e · OSTI ID:1514497

^[1];

^[2]

Penn State Worthington Scranton, Dunmore, PA (United States); Penn State Worthington Scranton
Univ.of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)

The White Dwarf Evolution Code (WDEC), written in Fortran, makes models of white dwarf stars. It is fast, versatile, and includes the latest physics. The code evolves hot (~100,000 K) input models down to a chosen effective temperature by relaxing the models to be solutions of the equations of stellar structure. Here, the code can also be used to obtain g-mode oscillation modes for the models. WDEC has a long history going back to the late 1960s. Over the years, it has been updated and re-packaged for modern computer architectures and has specifically been used in computationally intensive asteroseismic fitting. Generations of white dwarf astronomers and dozens of publications have made use of the WDEC, although the last true instrument paper is the original one, published in 1975. This paper discusses the history of the code, necessary to understand why it works the way it does, details the physics and features in the code today, and points the reader to where to find the code and a user guide.

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Research Organization:: The Univ.of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003843

OSTI ID:: 1514497

Journal Information:: The Astronomical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 155; ISSN 1538-3881

Publisher:: IOP Publishing - AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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TESS first look at evolved compact pulsators: Asteroseismology of the pulsating helium-atmosphere white dwarf TIC 257459955 Bell, Keaton J.; Córsico, Alejandro H.; Bischoff-Kim, Agnès Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 632 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936340	journal	November 2019
The Impact of White Dwarf Luminosity Profiles on Oscillation Frequencies Timmes, F. X.; Townsend, Richard H. D.; Bauer, Evan B. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aae70f	journal	November 2018
The Impact of White Dwarf Luminosity Profiles on Oscillation Frequencies Timmes, F. X.; Townsend, Richard H. D.; Bauer, Evan B. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1810.03765	text	January 2018
TESS first look at evolved compact pulsators: asteroseismology of the pulsating helium-atmosphere white dwarf TIC 257459955 Bell, Keaton J.; Córsico, Alejandro H.; Bischoff-Kim, Agnès arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1910.04180	text	January 2019

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methods: numerical
stars: oscillations
white dwarfs

Title: WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations

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