Evolutionary properties of white dwarf stars

ALTHAUS, L. G.

Advanced Stellar Evolutionary Phases

Societa Astronomica Italiana

Año: 2009;

White dwarfs are the most common end-point of stellar evolution. As such, they have potential applications to different fields of astrophysics.  In particlar, the use of white dwarfs as independent reliable cosmic clocks provides valuable constraints to fundamental parameters of a wide variety of stellar populations. This is possible in part thanks to the relative simplicity of their evolution. Here, I describe a simple cooling model that captures the essentials of the physics of whitedwarf evolution. Also, I comment on the results given by full evolutionary calculations of these stars, with particular emphasis on the different energy sources and processes responsible for chemical abundance changes that occur in the course of their evolution.