August 11-15, 2014

Abstract

White dwarf models for low metallicity populations

Marcelo Miguel Miller Bertolami (Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik)

Miller Bertolami, M. M. Althaus, L. G. Camisassa M. García-Berro, E. Instituto de Astrofisica de La Plata (CONICET/UNLP) Departament de Fısica Aplicada, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya

We present a grid of new white dwarf models appropriate for the study of low metallicity stellar populations. Due to the low metallicity of the progenitor stars, white dwarfs are born with thicker hydrogen envelopes, leading to more intense hydrogen burning shells as compared with their solar metallicity counterparts. Consequently, nuclear energy sources play an important role during long periods of time, considerably increasing the cooling times from those predicted by standard white dwarf models. Based on our models we study the metallicity range in which nuclear reactions play an important role and comment on possible observational counterparts.

Mode of presentation: poster