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Although the general theory of relativity (GR) predicts that gravitational waves (GWs) have exactly the same propagation velocity as electromagnetic (EM) waves, many theories of gravity beyond GR expect otherwise. Accurate measurement of the difference in their propagation speed, or a tight constraint on it, could be crucial to validate or put limits on theories beyond GR. The proposed future space-borne GW detectors are poised to detect a substantial number of Galactic white dwarf binaries (GWDBs), which emit the GW as semimonochromatic signals. Concurrently, these GWDBs can also be identified as optical variable sources. Here we proposed that allocating a GWDB's optical light curve and contemporaneous GW signal can be used to trace the difference between the velocity of GW and EM waves. Simulating GW and EM wave data from 14 verification binaries (VBs), our method constrains propagation-originated phase differences, limiting the discrepancy between the speed of light (c) and GW (⁠|$c_{GW}$|⁠). Through the utilization of LISA's design sensitivity and the current precision in optical observation on GWDB, our study reveals that a four-year observation of the 14 recognized VBs results in a joint constraint that confines |$\Delta c/c$| (⁠|$\Delta c = c_{\mathrm{GW}} - c$|⁠) to the range of |$-2.1\times 10^{-12}$| and |$4.8\times 10^{-12}$|⁠. Additionally, by incorporating this constraint on |$c_{\mathrm{GW}}$|⁠ , we are able to establish boundaries for the mass of the graviton, limiting it to |$m_{\mathrm{g}}\le 3\times 10^{-23}\, e\mathrm{V}\,c^{-2}$|⁠ , and for the parameter associated with local Lorentz violation, |$\bar{s}_{00}$|⁠ , constrained within the range of |$-3.4\times 10^{-11}\le \bar{s}_{00}\le 1.5\times 10^{-11}$|⁠. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on spectroscopic and photometric observations of the AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) system ASASSN-21br, which was discovered in outburst by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae in 2021 February. The outburst lasted for around three weeks, and exhibited a pronounced brightness dip for |$\approx$| 4 d, during which the spectra showed a sudden transition from emission- to absorption-line dominated. Only |$\approx$| 60 AM CVn systems with derived orbital periods are found in the Galaxy, therefore increasing the sample of AM CVn systems with known orbital periods is of tremendous importance to (1) constrain the physical mechanisms of their outbursts and (2) establish a better understanding of the low-frequency background noise of future gravitational wave surveys. Time-resolved photometry taken during the outburst of ASASSN-21br showed modulation with a period of around 36.65 min, which is likely the superhump or orbital period of the system. Time-resolved spectroscopy taken with the Southern African Large Telescope did not show any sign of periodicity in the He  i absorption lines. This is possibly due to the origin of these lines in the outbursting accretion disc, which makes it challenging to retrieve periodicity from the spectral lines. Future follow-up spectral observations during quiescence might allow us better constrain the orbital period of ASASSN-21br. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WDs and neutron stars are far-reaching and multi-faceted laboratories in the hunt for dark matter. We review detection prospects of wave-like, particulate, macroscopic and black hole dark matter that make use of several exceptional properties of compact stars, such as ultra-high densities, deep fermion degeneracies, low temperatures, nucleon superfluidity, strong magnetic fields, high rotational regularity, and significant gravitational wave emissivity. Foundational topics first made explicit in this document include the effect of the "propellor phase" on neutron star baryonic accretion, and the contribution of Auger and Cooper pair breaking effects to neutron star heating by dark matter capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantum hydrodynamic model formalism is semi-analytically offered to explore the propagatory and dispersive nature of heavy nucleus-acoustic waves (NAWs) in the completely degenerate (CD) oxygen–neon (ONe) and CO white dwarf (WD) cores. It includes their surrounding nearly degenerate (ND) transition regions. It has classical light nuclear species (LNS), heavy nuclear species (HNS) and quantum electrons in a spherically symmetric geometry. The electronic equation of state here considers the temperature degeneracy, interaction of electrons with the surrounding electrons and nuclei, exchange interaction and correlation interaction effects collectively. A methodical application of normal spherical mode analysis yields a generalised linear sextic dispersion relation of a unique mathematical type. A numerical illustrative platform shows the NAW propagatory and dispersive behaviours of current interest elaborately. It is interesting to find that the NAW is composed of multiple-frequency acoustic wave-spectral components. It is seen that both the CD core of the ONe WD and the ND region around the core are more sensitive to the temperature than the CO WD case. We finally indicate the tentative applicability of the investigated results with a special mention of compact astronomic situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present fully general relativistic 3D numerical simulations of accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs (WDs). We evolve three different WD models (non-rotating, rotating at 80 per cent and 99 per cent of the Keplerian mass shedding limit) that collapse due to electron capture. For each of these models, we provide a detailed analysis of their gravitational waves (GWs), neutrinos, and electromagnetic counterpart and discuss their detectability. Our results suggest that fast rotating AICs could be detectable up to a distance of 8 Mpc with third-generation GW observatories, and up to 1 Mpc with LIGO. AIC progenitors are expected to have large angular momentum due to their accretion history, which is a determining factor for their stronger GW emission compared to core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Regarding neutrino emission, we found no significant difference between AICs and CCSNe. In the electromagnetic spectrum, we find that AICs are two orders of magnitude fainter than type Ia supernovae. Our work places AICs as realistic targets for future multimessenger searches with third generation ground-based GW detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astromaterials, including neutron stars, have extraordinary properties in terms of very high densities, very large gravity, and magnetic field, and may have an incommensurate crystalline structure that could be composed of neutrons and protons. Neutron crystallization has been studied extensively, but the existence of Coulomb crystals in neutron stars is still to be studied to have a better idea of the crystallization of neutron stars and other types of astromaterials, such as black holes and white dwarfs (WD). Properties of Coulomb crystals in neutron stars are studied in this manuscript to have some idea of the structure of some hard astromaterials and their incommensurate nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1995, Glendenning, Kettner and Weber postulated the existence of a new class of compact stars resembling white dwarfs but containing a small strange quark-matter core surrounded by hadronic layers attaining much higher densities than those found in white dwarfs. In our previous study, we have shown that it could be possible to unmask these so-called strange dwarfs through gravitational-wave observations with future space-based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. We calculated more realistic equations of state for the hadronic envelope, but the quark core was treated using the simplest MIT bag model. In this paper, we investigate more closely the role of the possibly solid core in the structure and the tidal deformability of strange dwarfs in the full general relativistic framework by considering different models of strange quark matter in the crystalline color -superconducting phase. We find that the effect of the extreme rigidity of the elastic core on the tidal deformability is almost completely canceled by the surrounding hadronic layers. However, in all cases, the tidal deformability of strange dwarfs remains sufficiently lower than that of white dwarfs, to be potentially observable with gravitational waves despite the uncertainties in the strange quark-matter equation of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of relativistic ponderomotive force on the propagation of shock waves in relativistic degenerate plasma, which is relevant to high-intensity laser-plasma experiments aimed at replicating extreme conditions on white dwarfs. We derive the KdV-Burger's equation by incorporating the density modification induced by the ponderomotive force and hence demonstrate that this equation is a suitable model for shock waves affected by ponderomotive force. Unlike previous studies that use ponderomotive force as a source of nonlinearity to derive the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for envelope solitons, our study focuses on the effect of ponderomotive force on shocks produced by the intense laser. We show that the ponderomotive force can significantly modify the strength and shape of shock waves, providing insight into the underlying physics of shock waves in relativistic degenerate plasmas which may help to better understand experimental observations in this regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In quantum gravity phenomenology, the effect of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) on white dwarf structure has been given much attention in recent literature. However, these studies assume a zero temperature equation of state (EoS), excluding young white dwarfs whose initial temperatures are substantially high. To that cause, this paper calculates the Chandrasekhar EoS and resulting mass-radius relations of finite temperature white dwarfs modified by the quadratic GUP, an approach that extends Heisenberg's uncertainty principle by a quadratic term in momenta. The EoS was first approximated by treating the quadratic GUP parameter as perturbative, causing the EoS to exhibit expected thermal deviations at low pressures, and conflicting behaviors at high pressures, depending on the order of approximation. We then proceeded with a full numerical simulation of the modified EoS, and showed that in general, finite temperatures cause the EoS at low pressures to soften, while the quadratic GUP stiffens the EoS at high pressures. This modified EoS was then applied to the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equations and its classical approximation to obtain the modified mass-radius relations for general relativistic and Newtonian white dwarfs. The relations for both cases were found to exhibit the expected thermal deviations at small masses, where low-mass white dwarfs are shifted to the high-mass regime at large radii, while high-mass white dwarfs acquire larger masses, beyond the Chandrasekhar limit. Additionally, we find that for sufficiently large values of the GUP parameter and temperature, we obtain mass-radius relations that are completely removed from the ideal case, as high-mass deviations due to GUP and low-mass deviations due to temperature are no longer mutually exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the possibility of periodic pulsar-like gamma-ray emission from the white dwarfs in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii is investigated. We show that the white dwarf magnetospheres in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii can possibly induce potentials to accelerate charged particles to energies in excess of one tera electronvolt (TeV) with associated gamma-ray emission through processes such as curvature radiation, inverse Compton, and hadronic processes such as neutral pion decay. We report here pulsed gamma-ray signatures at or close to the spin period of white dwarfs in both AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii in the Fermi-LAT dataset. This may indicate that both these white dwarfs possibly contain a particle accelerator that can produce relativistic electrons and ions and associated high energy radiation. The possibility of pair production is also investigated, which could provide a source for relativistic e ± pairs in the magnetosphere. This could possibly be a driver for other forms of lepton-induced multi-wavelength pulsar-like emission from these two systems as well, for example, to explain the recently detected pulsed radio emission from AE Aquarii and R Scorpii in MeerKAT observations at the spin period of the white dwarf. The possibility of future detection of AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is also discussed. The future Vera Rubin Observatory will make a revolutionary contribution to time-domain astrophysics, which may lead to the discovery of thousands of new transient sources, possibly also many more close binaries with highly spun-up magnetized white dwarfs such as AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii for future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple cooling model of white dwarf stars is re-analyzed in Palatini f (R) gravity. Modified gravity affects the white dwarf structures and consequently their ages. We find that the resulting super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs need more time to cool down than sub-Chandrasekhar ones, or when compared to the Newtonian models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1995, Glendenning, Kettner and Weber postulated the existence of a new class of compact stars resembling white dwarfs but containing a small strange quark-matter core surrounded by hadronic layers attaining much higher densities than those found in white dwarfs. In our previous study, we have shown that it could be possible to unmask these so-called strange dwarfs through gravitational-wave observations with future space-based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. We calculated more realistic equations of state for the hadronic envelope, but the quark core was treated using the simplest MIT bag model. In this paper, we investigate more closely the role of the possibly solid core in the structure and the tidal deformability of strange dwarfs in the full general relativistic framework by considering different models of strange quark matter in the crystalline color -superconducting phase. We find that the effect of the extreme rigidity of the elastic core on the tidal deformability is almost completely canceled by the surrounding hadronic layers. However, in all cases, the tidal deformability of strange dwarfs remains sufficiently lower than that of white dwarfs, to be potentially observable with gravitational waves despite the uncertainties in the strange quark-matter equation of state.

Over the last couple of decades, there have been direct and indirect evidences for massive compact objects than their conventional counterparts. A couple of such examples are super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs and massive neutron stars. The observations of more than a dozen peculiar over-luminous type Ia supernovae predict their origins from super-Chandrasekhar white dwarf progenitors. On the other hand, recent gravitational wave detection and some pulsar observations provide arguments for massive neutron stars, lying in the famous mass-gap between lowest astrophysical black hole and conventional highest neutron star masses. We show that the idea of a squashed fuzzy sphere, which brings in noncommutative geometry, can self-consistently explain either of the massive objects as if they are actually fuzzy or squashed fuzzy spheres. Noncommutative geometry is a branch of quantum gravity. If the above proposal is correct, it will provide observational evidences for noncommutativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism of explosion of type Ia supernovae is based on nuclear burning of the white dwarf material. When modeling scenarios for the evolution of white dwarfs followed by a supernova explosion, it is important to fully take into account the nonequilibrium chemical kinetics of major isotopes in the form of subgrid processes. It is necessary to consider a detailed network of nuclear reactions, but in this case not all reactions make major contributions both to the final mass fraction of isotopes and to the energy of burning. However, even the conventional 7-, 13-, 19-, 21-, or 34-isotope networks of reactions present a rather expensive procedure of subgrid processes to consider. We propose a "convolution" of an alpha network of nuclear reactions whose analytical form can be used in a hydrodynamic model of the evolution of white dwarfs and a type Ia supernova explosion. A large number of computational experiments with a distributed client-server computational system is used to construct such a model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space-based gravitational-wave detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, allow for the probing of the interior of white dwarfs in binaries through the imprints of tidal effects on the gravitational wave signal. In this study, we have computed the tidal deformability of white dwarfs in full general relativity, taking into account the crystallization of their core. The elasticity of the core is found to systematically reduce the tidal deformability, especially for low-mass stars. Moreover, it is shown that errors on the tidal deformability due to the use of the Newtonian theory can become important for massive white dwarfs. Finally, the orbital evolution of eccentric binaries is investigated. Measuring the precession rate of these systems could provide estimations of the individual masses. However, it is found that the neglect of crystallization could lead to very large errors.

In this paper, the possibility of periodic pulsar-like gamma-ray emission from the white dwarfs in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii is investigated. We show that the white dwarf magnetospheres in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii can possibly induce potentials to accelerate charged particles to energies in excess of one tera electronvolt (TeV) with associated gamma-ray emission through processes such as curvature radiation, inverse Compton, and hadronic processes such as neutral pion decay. We report here pulsed gamma-ray signatures at or close to the spin period of white dwarfs in both AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii in the Fermi-LAT dataset. This may indicate that both these white dwarfs possibly contain a particle accelerator that can produce relativistic electrons and ions and associated high energy radiation. The possibility of pair production is also investigated, which could provide a source for relativistic e± pairs in the magnetosphere. This could possibly be a driver for other forms of lepton-induced multi-wavelength pulsar-like emission from these two systems as well, for example, to explain the recently detected pulsed radio emission from AE Aquarii and R Scorpii in MeerKAT observations at the spin period of the white dwarf. The possibility of future detection of AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is also discussed. The future Vera Rubin Observatory will make a revolutionary contribution to time-domain astrophysics, which may lead to the discovery of thousands of new transient sources, possibly also many more close binaries with highly spun-up magnetized white dwarfs such as AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii for future investigation.

A simple cooling model of white dwarf stars is re-analyzed in Palatini f(R) gravity. Modified gravity affects the white dwarf structures and consequently their ages. We find that the resulting super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs need more time to cool down than sub-Chandrasekhar ones, or when compared to the Newtonian models.

Over the last couple of decades, there have been direct and indirect evidences for massive compact objects than their conventional counterparts. A couple of such examples are super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs and massive neutron stars. The observations of more than a dozen peculiar over-luminous type Ia supernovae predict their origins from super-Chandrasekhar white dwarf progenitors. On the other hand, recent gravitational wave detection and some pulsar observations provide arguments for massive neutron stars, lying in the famous mass-gap between lowest astrophysical black hole and conventional highest neutron star masses. We show that the idea of a squashed fuzzy sphere, which brings in noncommutative geometry, can self-consistently explain either of the massive objects as if they are actually fuzzy or squashed fuzzy spheres. Noncommutative geometry is a branch of quantum gravity. If the above proposal is correct, it will provide observational evidences for noncommutativity.

A low flux density region nearby white dwarf WD1334-678 in the 140 µm AKARI survey maps has been systematically searched and found a far-infrared cavity centered at R.A. (J2000) = 13h38m14.4s, Dec.(J2000) = −68◦40’42”, in which minimum flux is 19.5 MJy/sr at 90 µm wavelength. The physical properties (Size, dust color temperature, dust mass) and thermodynamic property (Planck function distribution) of the cavity using 140 µm and 90 µm AKARI survey data. The size of the cavity is found to be 0.17◦× 0.12◦ has been presented. The dust color temperature is found in the range 17.70 ± 0.01 K to 18.81 ± 0.01 K. The Plank function distribution along major and minor diameters shows a very good agreement with sinusoidal fitting. The period of oscillation of dust particles along major and minor diameters are 3.2 Wm-2Sr-1Hz-1arcmin-1and 1.6 Wm-2Sr-1Hz-1arcmin-1, respectively. BIBECHANA 18 (2) (2021) 130-137

The existence of Chandrasekhar’s limit has played various decisive roles in astronomical observations for many decades. However, various recent theoretical investigations suggest that gravitational collapse of white dwarfs is withheld for arbitrarily high masses beyond Chandrasekhar’s limit if the equation of state incorporates the effect of quantum gravity via the generalized uncertainty principle. There have been a few attempts to restore the Chandrasekhar limit but they are found to be inadequate. In this paper, we rigorously resolve this problem by analysing the dynamical instability in general relativity. We confirm the existence of Chandrasekhar’s limit as well as stable mass–radius curves that behave consistently with astronomical observations. Moreover, this stability analysis suggests gravitational collapse beyond the Chandrasekhar limit signifying the possibility of compact objects denser than white dwarfs.

We analyse a wealth of optical spectroscopic and photometric observations of the bright (V = 11.9) cataclysmic variable BG Tri. The Gaia DR2 parallax gives a distance d = 334(8) pc to the source, making the object one of the intrinsically brightest nova-like variables seen under a low orbital inclination angle. Time-resolved spectroscopic observations revealed an orbital period of |$P_{\rm {orb}}=3.8028(24)$|  h. Its spectroscopic characteristics resemble RW Sex and similar nova-like variables. We disentangled the H α emission line into two components, and show that one component forms on the irradiated face of the secondary star. We suggest that the other one originates at a disc outflow area adjacent to the L3 point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White dwarf stars that enter the tidal radius of black holes with masses ≲ 10 5 M ⊙ are doomed to be ripped apart by tidal forces. Black holes in this mass range between stellar black holes and supermassive black holes have not been conclusively identified so the detection of a tidal disruption of a white dwarf would provide clear evidence for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes. In this review, we present a theoretical and observational overview of the transient events that result from the tidal disruptions of white dwarfs by intermediate-mass black holes. This includes discussion of the latest simulations and predicted properties, the results of observational searches, as well as a summary of the potential for gravitational wave emission to be detected with upcoming missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novae are the observational manifestations of thermonuclear runaways on the surface of accreting white dwarfs (WDs). Although novae are an ubiquitous phenomenon, their properties at low metallicity are not well understood. Using the publicly-available stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (mesa), we model the evolution of accreting carbon–oxygen WDs and consider models that accrete matter with metallicity Z  = 0.02 or 10−4. We consider both models without mixing and with matter enriched by CO-elements assuming that mixing occurs in the process of accretion (with mixing fraction 0.25). We present and contrast ignition mass, ejected mass, recurrence period, and maximum luminosity of novae for different WD masses and accretion rates for these metallicities and mixing cases. We find that models with Z  = 0.02 have ignition masses and recurrence periods smaller than models with low Z , while the ejected mass and maximum luminosity are larger. Retention efficiency during novae outbursts decreases with increasing metallicity. In our implementation, inclusion of mixing at the H/He interface reduces accreted mass, ejected mass, and recurrence period as compared to the no-mixing case, while the maximum luminosity becomes larger. Retention efficiency is significantly reduced, becoming negative in most of our models. For ease of use, we provide a tabular summary of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform ground-based photometric observations of 22 DA white dwarf stars, 10 already known ZZ Cetis and 12 candidates with atmospheric parameters inside the classical instability strip. We report on the discovery of four new variable DA white dwarf stars. Two objects are near the middle of the instability strip, SDSS J082804.63+094956.6 and SDSS J094929.09+101918.8, and two red edge pulsators, GD 195 and L495−82. In addition, we classified four objects as possible variables, since evidence of variability was detected in the light curve, but the signal-to-noise ratio was not sufficient to establish a definite detection. Follow-up observations were performed for 10 known ZZ Ceti stars to verify period stability and search for new periodicities. For each confirmed variable, we perform a detailed asteroseismological fit and compare the structural parameters obtained from the best-fitting models with those obtained from spectroscopy and photometry from Gaia. Finally we present a study of the asteroseismological properties of a sample of 91 ZZ Ceti stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novae are the observational manifestations of thermonuclear runaways on the surface of accreting white dwarfs (WDs). Although novae are an ubiquitous phenomenon, their properties at low metallicity are not well understood. Using the publicly-available stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (mesa), we model the evolution of accreting carbon–oxygen WDs and consider models that accrete matter with metallicity Z  = 0.02 or 10−4. We consider both models without mixing and with matter enriched by CO-elements assuming that mixing occurs in the process of accretion (with mixing fraction 0.25). We present and contrast ignition mass, ejected mass, recurrence period, and maximum luminosity of novae for different WD masses and accretion rates for these metallicities and mixing cases. We find that models with Z  = 0.02 have ignition masses and recurrence periods smaller than models with low Z , while the ejected mass and maximum luminosity are larger. Retention efficiency during novae outbursts decreases with increasing metallicity. In our implementation, inclusion of mixing at the H/He interface reduces accreted mass, ejected mass, and recurrence period as compared to the no-mixing case, while the maximum luminosity becomes larger. Retention efficiency is significantly reduced, becoming negative in most of our models. For ease of use, we provide a tabular summary of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extended magnetosphere of a strongly magnetized accreting white dwarf (known as a polar) prevents the formation of an accretion disk and the matter is channelled to the magnetic pole(s). A few such sources show quasi-periodic oscillations in their optical light curves. These high-frequency oscillations are thought to be generated from the post-shock accretion column. The kinetic energy of the accretion flow is finally emitted from this post-shock region and the involved radiation processes decide the state of the matter. Here we study the structure and the dynamical properties of such accretion columns and compare the results with the observational characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]