SEVEN-PERIOD ASTEROSEISMIC FIT OF THE<i>KEPLER</i>DBV

Abstract

We present a new, better-constrained asteroseismic analysis of the helium-atmosphere (DB) white dwarf discovered in the field of view of the original Kepler mission. Observations obtained over the course of 2 yr yield at least seven independent modes, two more than were found in the discovery paper for the object. With several triplets and doublets, we are able to fix the ℓ and m identification of several modes before performing the fitting, greatly reducing the number of assumptions we must make about mode identification. We find a very thin helium layer for this relatively hot DB, which adds evidence to the hypothesis that helium diffuses outward during DB cooling. At least a few of the modes appear to be stable on evolutionary timescales and could allow us to obtain a measurement of the rate of cooling with monitoring of the star over the course of the next few years with ground-based follow-up.