Here, we present near-infrared spectroscopic observations of 15 helium atmosphere, metal-rich white dwarfs obtained at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. While a connection has been demonstrated between the most highly polluted, hydrogen atmosphere white dwarfs and the presence of warm circumstellar dust and gas, their frequency at the helium atmosphere variety is poorly constrained. None of our targets show excess near-infrared radiation consistent with warm orbiting material. Adding these near-infrared constraints to previous near- and mid-infrared observations, the frequency of warm circumstellar material at metal-bearing white dwarfs is at least 20% for hydrogen-dominated photospheres, but could be less than 5% for those effectively composed of helium alone. The lower occurrence of dust disks around helium atmosphere white dwarfs is consistent with Myr timescales for photospheric metals in massive convection zones. Analyzing the mass distribution of 10 white dwarfs with warm circumstellar material, we search for similar trends between the frequency of disks and the predicted frequency of massive planets around intermediate mass stars, but find the probability that disk-bearing white dwarfs are more massive than average is not significant.
Recent observations and theoretical investigations of neutron stars indicate that their atmospheres consist not of hydrogen or iron but possibly other elements such as helium. We calculate the ionization and dissociation equilibrium of helium in the conditions found in the atmospheres of magnetized neutron stars. For the first time this investigation includes the internal degrees of freedom of the helium molecule. We found that at the temperatures and densities of neutron star atmospheres the rotovibrational excitations of helium molecules are populated. Including these excitations increases t…
The atmospheres of cool, helium-rich white dwarfs constitute an exotic and poorly explored physical regime of stellar atmospheres. Under physical conditions where the temperature varies from $\rm 1000K$ to $\rm 10000K$, the density can reach values as large as $\rm 2 g/cm^{3}$, and the pressure is as high as $\rm 1 Mbar$, the atmosphere is no longer an ideal gas and must be treated as a dense fluid. Helium atoms become strongly correlated and refraction effects are present. Opacity sources such as $\rm He^{-}$ free-free absorption must be calculated with a formalism that has never been applied…
A model of a mixed helium-hydrogenic atmosphere of the isolated neutron star 1E1207.4-5209 is proposed. It is based on the assumption that the main components in the atmosphere are the exotic molecular ions $He_2^{3+}$ and $H_3^{2+}$ with the presence of $He^{+}, (HeH)^{2+}, H_2^{+}$ under a surface magnetic field $\approx 4.4 \times 10^{13}$ G. In addition to two absorption features observed by {\it Chandra} observatory (Sanwal et al, 2002) the model predicts one more narrow absorption feature at $\approx 400$ eV.
We investigate the dissociation equilibrium of $\rm H_2$ in very cool, helium-rich white dwarf atmospheres. We present the solution of the non-ideal chemical equilibrium for the dissociation of molecular hydrogen in a medium of dense helium. We find that at the photosphere of cool white dwarfs of $T_{\rm eff}\rm=4000 K$, the non-ideality results in an increase of the mole fraction of molecular hydrogen by up to a factor of $\sim 10$, compared to the equilibrium value for the ideal gas. This increases the $\rm H_{2}-He$ CIA opacity by an order of magnitude and will affect the determination of t…
In solar EUV spectra the He I and He II resonance lines show unusual behaviour and have anomalously high intensities compared with other transition region lines. The formation of the helium resonance lines is investigated through extensive non-LTE radiative transfer calculations. The model atmospheres of Vernazza, Avrett & Loeser are found to provide reasonable matches to the helium resonance line intensities but significantly over-estimate the intensities of other transition region lines. New model atmospheres have been developed from emission measure distributions derived by Macpherson & Jor…
We determine the ratio of helium- to hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarf stars as a function of effective temperature from a model atmosphere analysis of the infrared photometric data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey combined with available visual magnitudes. Our study surpasses any previous analysis of this kind both in terms of the accuracy of the Teff determinations as well as the size of the sample. We observe that the ratio of helium- to hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs increases gradually from a constant value of ~0.25 between Teff = 15,000 K and 10,000 K to a value twice as large in the r…
Recent observations of thermally emitting isolated neutron stars revealed spectral features that could be interpreted as radiative transitions of He in a magnetized neutron star atmosphere. We present Hartree-Fock calculations of the polarization-dependent photoionization cross sections of the He atom in strong magnetic fields ranging from 10^12 G to 10^14 G. Convenient fitting formulae for the cross sections are given as well as related oscillator strengths for various bound-bound transitions. The effects of finite nucleus mass on the radiative absorption cross sections are examined using per…
This is to notify colleagues that our ApJ paper and corresponding astro-ph version are being withdrawn. Optical spectroscopy obtained with a 3m class telescope gave no indication of any features in the spectrum of 'GD248B' whatsoever. In addition to our proper motion data and optical photometry, all was consistent with our original interpretation for this object. However, very high SNR optical spectroscopy obtained at the Keck 10m revealed absorption features and points to a background subdwarf K7/M0 star moving at very high velocity with nearly identical proper motion to GD248, but alas, not …
We present an analysis of 40 cool helium-rich white dwarfs found in the Hamburg/ESO survey. They were selected for follow-up spectroscopy because of their U-B colour below -0.18, the absence of strong absorption lines, and a continuum shape similar to that of a quasar. Effective temperatures for individual stars were determined by fitting model atmospheres of nearly pure helium with a small admixture of hydrogen. As a consequence of the selection criteria all but one sample stars have Teff below 20000 K. Four stars clearly show helium and hydrogen lines in their spectra. In the spectra of anot…
Models of the solar transition region made from lines other than those of helium cannot account for the strength of the helium lines. However, the collisional excitation rates of the helium resonance lines are unusually sensitive to the energy of the exciting electrons. Non-thermal motions in the transition region could drive slowly-ionizing helium ions rapidly through the steep temperature gradient, exposing them to excitation by electrons characteristic of higher temperatures than those describing their ionization state. We present the results of calculations which use a more physical repres…
A detailed analysis of the very cool white dwarfs SDSS 1337+00 and LHS 3250 is presented. Model atmosphere calculations with improved collision-induced absorptions by molecular hydrogen indicate that a pure hydrogen composition can be ruled out, and that the strong infrared absorption observed in these cool stars is better explained in terms of collisions of H2 with neutral helium. It is shown that even though the overall shape of the observed energy distributions can be reproduced reasonably well with helium-rich models, the peak of the energy distribution near 6000 A is always predicted too …
We present a detailed analysis of a large spectroscopic and photometric sample of DZ white dwarfs based on our latest model atmosphere calculations. We revise the atmospheric parameters of the trigonometric parallax sample of Bergeron, Leggett, & Ruiz (12 stars) and analyze 147 new DZ white dwarfs discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The inclusion of metals and hydrogen in our model atmosphere calculations leads to different atmospheric parameters than those derived from pure helium models. Calcium abundances are found in the range from log (Ca/He) = -12 to -8. We also find that fits of…
We present He-like line ratios (resonance, intercombination and forbidden lines) for totally and partially photoionized media. For solar plasmas, these line ratios are already widely used for density and temperature diagnostics of coronal (collisional) plasmas. In the case of totally and partially photoionized plasmas, He-like line ratios allow for the determination of the ionization processes involved in the plasma (photoionization with or without an additional collisional ionization process), as well as the density and the electronic temperature. With the new generation of X-ray satellites, …
We investigate the evolution of cooling helium atmosphere white dwarfs using a full evolutionary code, specifically developed for following the effects of element diffusion and gravitational settling on white dwarf cooling. The major difference between this work and previous work is that we use more recent opacity data from the OPAL project. Since, in general, these opacities are higher than those available ten years ago, at a given effective temperature, convection zones go deeper than in models with older opacity data. Thus convective dredge-up of observationally detectable carbon in helium …
We explore different evolutionary scenarios to explain the helium deficiency observed in H1504+65, the most massive known PG1159 star. We concentrate mainly on the possibility that this star could be the result of mass loss shortly after the born-again and during the subsequent evolution through the [WCL] stage. This possibility is sustained by recent observational evidence of extensive mass-loss events in Sakurai's object and is in line with the recent finding that such mass losses give rise to PG1159 models with thin helium-rich envelopes and large rates of period change, as demanded by the …
Material accreted onto a neutron star can stably burn in steady state only when the accretion rate is high (typically super-Eddington) or if a large flux from the neutron star crust permeates the outer atmosphere. For such situations we have analyzed the stability of nonradial oscillations, finding one unstable mode for pure helium accretion. This is a shallow surface wave which resides in the helium atmosphere above the heavier ashes of the ocean. It is excited by the increase in the nuclear reaction rate during the oscillations, and it grows on the timescale of a second. For a slowly rotatin…
HeH$^+$ is found to be the dominant positive ion over a wide range of temperatures and densities relevant to helium rich white dwarfs. The inclusion of HeH$^+$ in ionization equilibrium computations increases the abundance of free electrons by a significant factor. For temperatures below 8000 K, He$^-$ free-free absorption is increased by up to a factor of 5, by the inclusion of HeH$^+$. Illustrative model atmospheres and spectral energy distributions are computed, which show that HeH$^+$ has a strong effect upon the density and pressure structure of helium rich white dwarfs with teff < 8000 K…
Abundance analysis of the cool extreme helium (EHe) star LSS 3378 is presented. The abundance analysis is done using LTE line formation and LTE model atmospheres constructed for EHe stars. The atmosphere of LSS 3378 shows evidence of H-burning, He-burning, and s-process nucleosynthesis. The derived abundances of iron-peak and alpha-elements indicate absence of selective fractionation or any other processes that can distort chemical composition of these elements. Hence, the Fe abundance (log epsilon(Fe) = 6.1) is adopted as an initial metallicity indicator. The measured abundances of LSS 3378 a…
White dwarfs represent the endpoint of stellar evolution for stars with initial masses between approximately 0.07 msun and 8-10 msun, where msun is the mass of the Sun (more massive stars end their life as either black holes or neutron stars). The theory of stellar evolution predicts that the majority of white dwarfs have a core made of carbon and oxygen, which itself is surrounded by a helium layer and, for ~80 per cent of known white dwarfs, by an additional hydrogen layer. All white dwarfs therefore have been traditionally found to belong to one of two categories: those with a hydrogen-rich…
We studied the class of DB white dwarf stars, using re-calibrated UV spectra for thirty four DBs obtained with the IUE satellite. By comparing the observed energy distributions with model atmospheres, we simultaneously determine spectroscopic distances (d), effective temperature (Teff), and surface gravities (log g). Using parallax measurements and previous determinations of Teff and log g from optical spectra, we can study whether the atmospheres of eleven DB stars are consistent with pure He or have a small amount of H contamination. We also report on our observations of seventeen stars with…
We present a detailed calculation of model atmospheres for DA white dwarfs. Our atmosphere code solves the atmosphere structure in local thermodynamic equilibrium with a standard partial linearization technique, which takes into account the energy transfer by radiation and convection. This code incorporates recent improved and extended data base of collision induced absorption by molecular hydrogen. We analyse the thermodynamic structure and emergent flux of atmospheres in a range 2500 < Teff < 60000$ K and 6.5 < log g < 9.0. Bolometric correction and colour indices are provided for a subsampl…
In this paper we report on the real nature of the star HD 145792, classified as He weak in {\it ``The General Catalogue of Ap and Am stars''}. By means of FEROS@ESO1.52m high resolution spectroscopic data, we refined the atmospheric parameters of the star, obtaining: T$_{\rm eff}$ = 14400 $\pm$ 400 K, $\log g$ = 4.06 $\pm$ 0.08 and $ξ$ = 0 $^{+0.6}$ km s$^{-1}$. These values resulted always lower than those derived by different authors with pure photometric approaches. Using our values we undertook an abundance analysis with the aim to derive, for the first time, the chemical pattern of the st…
We present the analysis of a total of 177h of high-quality optical time-series photometry of the helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf (DBV) EC 20058-5234. The bulk of the observations (135h) were obtained during a WET campaign (XCOV15) in July 1997 that featured coordinated observing from 4 southern observatory sites over an 8-day period. The remaining data (42h) were obtained in June 2004 at Mt John Observatory in NZ over a one-week observing period. This work significantly extends the discovery observations of this low-amplitude (few percent) pulsator by increasing the number of detected …
We measured low energy cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in the kinetic energy range 0.215 - 21.5 GeV/n at different solar activities during a period from 1997 to 2002. The observations were carried out with the BESS spectrometer launched on a balloon at Lynn Lake, Canada. A calculation for the correction of secondary particle backgrounds from the overlying atmosphere was improved by using the measured spectra at small atmospheric depths ranging from 5 through 37 g/cm^2. The uncertainties including statistical and systematic errors of the obtained spectra at the top of atmosphere are 5-7 % …
The He I 5876A absorption line recently discovered in the spectrum of the companion to the millisecond pulsar PSR J1740-5340 is tentatively attributed to electron impact excitations due to the irradiation of its atmosphere by gamma-rays emitted by the pulsar's magnetosphere. Numerical calculations, similar to those carried out previously for Type Ib SNe, indicate that a pulsar beam with photon energies ~ 1 MeV gives rise to a 5876A line of the observed strength if the beam's spin-down conversion efficiency approaches 1%. However, a significant difficulty for the proposed mechanism is the stren…
