On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs

It has been recently proposed that helium white dwarfs may provide promising conditions for the occurrence of the Bose-Einstein condensation. The argument supporting this expectation is that in some conditions attained in the core of these objects, the typical De Broglie wavelength associated with h...

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Autores principales: Benvenuto, Omar Gustavo, De Vito, María Alejandra
Formato: Articulo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2011
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Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/131046
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id I19-R120-10915-131046
record_format dspace
institution Universidad Nacional de La Plata
institution_str I-19
repository_str R-120
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
language Inglés
topic Astronomía
white and brown dwarfs
stars
spellingShingle Astronomía
white and brown dwarfs
stars
Benvenuto, Omar Gustavo
De Vito, María Alejandra
On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
topic_facet Astronomía
white and brown dwarfs
stars
description It has been recently proposed that helium white dwarfs may provide promising conditions for the occurrence of the Bose-Einstein condensation. The argument supporting this expectation is that in some conditions attained in the core of these objects, the typical De Broglie wavelength associated with helium nuclei is of the order of the mean distance between neighboring nuclei. In these conditions the system should depart from classical behavior showing quantum effects. As helium nuclei are bosons, they are expected to condense. In order to explore the possibility of detecting the Bose-Einstein condensation in the evolution of helium white dwarfs we have computed a set of models for a variety of stellar masses and values of the condensation temperature. We do not perform a detailed treatment of the condensation process but mimic it by suppressing the nuclei contribution to the equation of state by applying an adequate function. As the cooling of white dwarfs depends on average properties of the whole stellar interior, this procedure should be suitable for exploring the departure of the cooling process from that predicted by the standard treatment. We find that the Bose-Einstein condensation has noticeable, but not dramatic effects on the cooling process only for the most massive white dwarfs compatible with a helium dominated interior (≈ 0.50M⊙) and very low luminosities (say, Log(L/L⊙) < -4.0). These facts lead us to conclude that it seems extremely difficult to find observable signals of the Bose-Einstein condensation. Recently, it has been suggested that the population of helium white dwarfs detected in the globular cluster NGC 6397 is a good candidate for detecting signals of the Bose-Einstein condensation. We find that these stars have masses too low and are too bright to have an already condensed interior.
format Articulo
Articulo
author Benvenuto, Omar Gustavo
De Vito, María Alejandra
author_facet Benvenuto, Omar Gustavo
De Vito, María Alejandra
author_sort Benvenuto, Omar Gustavo
title On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
title_short On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
title_full On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
title_fullStr On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
title_full_unstemmed On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
title_sort on the occurrence and detectability of bose-einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
publishDate 2011
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/131046
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