About this Research Topic

Background

White dwarfs constitute the final evolutionary phase for more than 95 percent of all stars that populate the Universe. These stellar fossils keep within them a detailed and complete record of all the physical processes involved in the formation and evolution of the low- intermediate-mass stars that populate our Galaxy. To decrypt this information, astronomers employ various astrophysical techniques, such as spectroscopy and photometry, which allow to derive their surface temperatures, gravities and chemical compositions. For a few decades, the study of the normal modes of oscillation of these stellar remnants has made it possible to map their deep --and otherwise inaccessible--interiors through asteroseismological techniques. Moreover, current large data surveys provide us complete and statistical significant samples of the Galactic white dwarf population, and thus, crucial information for the study of the structure, evolution and chemical enrichment of our Galaxy and its components, including the age and history of star formation of the Milky Way.

In the last years, the study of white dwarfs has undergone a major revolution thanks to different photometric and spectroscopic surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Extremely Low Mass (ELM) Survey, the astrometric Gaia mission ---that provides trigonometric parallaxes and photometry for a vast number of white dwarfs--- and also with the Hubble Space Telescope, that provides ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared observations. In the blossoming area of stellar variability, the study of white dwarf pulsators in all their flavors has greatly benefited from space telescopes, such as the already completed Kepler mission, the TESS mission --which is currently in full operational phase, the recently started Cheops mission, and the PLATO mission, which will be operational in the upcoming years. Space telescopes, which have the ability to observe variable stars for months, allow finding frequencies of oscillation of pulsating white dwarfs with unprecedented precision, and understanding their long-term behavior.

The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a broad account of all the most important theoretical and observational discoveries in the area of white dwarfs achieved in the last years for which the great collaborations, materialized in space missions and surveys, have played a relevant role. The Topic welcomes articles about formation, evolution and asteroseismology of white dwarfs and their applications to astroparticle physics, population synthesis studies, cosmochronology, planetary systems, and white dwarf atmospheres.

Keywords: white dwarfs, asteroseismology, star oscillations, star interiors, star evolution, star atmospheres, stellar content, solar neighbourhood catalogs

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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