Unified gravity and Rossby mode analysis in accreting white dwarf stars
Abstract
Dwarf novae are a subset of cataclysmic variables that accrete material intermittently in short-duration outbursts with sometimes long quiescent intervals in between. During the quiescent state, the white dwarf (WD) photosphere may be observable. Some of these systems show periodic variability consistent with a non-radial oscillations. Asteroseismology has become a unique tool for the measurement of internal structure of the WDs, such as their masses, radii, temperatures and rotation profiles. A few stable periodicities have been observed for these systems, but the lack of complete and accurate theoretical models has hindered the real diagnosis of the observed pulsations. Though the associated pulsations in accreting WDs are thought to be g-modes, some work in the literature suggests that these pulsations could be Rossby modes (r-modes). Here, to elucidate this, we present a first simultaneous analysis of g- and r-mode pulsations in accreting WDs including a full computation of visibility accounting for the distribution of variation over the WD surface. We show that, up to the second lowest degree (l=2), neither g nor r-modes have a clear advantage in visibility. Although, a few retrograde r-mode orders exhibit a larger visibility, the low-order g modes possess higher frequency in the star's frame making them more likely to be driven within the convective driving scenario commonly applied to isolated WDs. Therefore, we favor a g-mode origin for the observed periods in accreting WDs. We also explore how the normal mode frequencies vary with changes in properties of the WD such as mass, core temperature and accreted layer thickness. We propose a potential new method to identify the mode orders based on time variation of frequencies during the months of cooling after the accretion event.