Monitoring the Light Curves of Pulsating White Dwarf Stars for Potential Outbursts
POSTER
Abstract
During this observation, we hoped to obtain data regarding any outbursts from white dwarf stars PG 1541$+$651 or WD J1712-1915. Both stars are currently pulsating and close to the red edge of the ZZ Ceti instability strip, justifying the possibility of outbursts. Unfortunately, no outburst occurred, but evaluation of the data from these nights still took place to help inform others about these rarely acknowledged white dwarfs. In sharing these outcomes, we hope that others can use these data as needed, especially since the values gathered for PG 1541$+$651 have changed significantly within the past 21 years.
*A special thank you to the National Science Foundation REU Grant PHY-2050277 for financially supporting this program and making this report possible. I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. Kurtis Williams, for teaching me about white dwarfs and many other aspects, which helped me complete this report. Additionally, I want to thank SciDAVis for its graphing program, which created a Fourier transform with a threshold for my report.