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

Abstract

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.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Penn State Worthington Scranton, Dunmore, PA (United States)
  2. Univ.of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
The Univ.of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1514497
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0003843
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astronomical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 155; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-3881
Publisher:
IOP Publishing - AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; methods: numerical; stars: oscillations; white dwarfs

Citation Formats

Bischoff-Kim, Agnès, and Montgomery, Michael H. WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e.
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Bischoff-Kim, Agnès, & Montgomery, Michael H. WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e
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Bischoff-Kim, Agnès, and Montgomery, Michael H. Tue . "WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1514497.
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@article{osti_1514497,
title = {WDEC: A Code for Modeling White Dwarf Structure and Pulsations},
author = {Bischoff-Kim, Agnès and Montgomery, Michael H.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e},
journal = {The Astronomical Journal (Online)},
number = 5,
volume = 155,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aab70e
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: In this figure reproduced from Paxton et al. (2011), we place two lines representing the interior conditions of two of our most extreme white dwarf models. Most models produced with WDEC will reside between the two solid cyan curves. The dashed curves represent the default boundaries between differentmore » equations of state used in MESA. All boundaries are indicated as a set of double dashed lines. In the space between the dashed lines, MESA smoothly joins the EOS tables together. EOS tables come from Rogers & Nayfonov (2002) (OPAL), Saumon et al. (1995) (SCVH), Potekhin & Chabrier (2010) (PC), and Timmes & Swesty (2000) (HELM). See Paxton et al. (2011) for more details on the treatment of the equation of state tables in MESA.« less
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    TESS first look at evolved compact pulsators: Asteroseismology of the pulsating helium-atmosphere white dwarf TIC 257459955
    journal, November 2019

    The Impact of White Dwarf Luminosity Profiles on Oscillation Frequencies
    journal, November 2018

    • Timmes, F. X.; Townsend, Richard H. D.; Bauer, Evan B.
    • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 2
    • DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aae70f

    The Impact of White Dwarf Luminosity Profiles on Oscillation Frequencies
    text, January 2018

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      Table 2 (p. 6)table
      Figure 5 (p. 7)figure
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