On Mar 25, 6:21 pm, HW@....(Henri Wilson) wrote:
On 25 Mar 2007 01:41:16 -0700, "Jerry" wrote:

On Mar 24, 4:22 pm, HW@....(Henri Wilson) wrote:

Good....now can you provide me with its brightness curve?

Sure. The white dwarf has virtually constant brightness.

Evidence please....

CORRECTION

A relatively young white dwarf, whose thermonuclear heat engine
has only recently been extinguished, may very well go into
an oscillatory phase as it cools through the instability strip.

A brief period of oscillation is part of the normal dying
behavior of many white dwarfs.

My rough plot of the white dwarf companion of PSR J1909-3744
on an H-R diagram shows that it has long cooled past any
possible presence on the instability strip.

Therefore it has constant brightness.

As dead stars which do not support thermonuclear reactions,
white dwarf stars in general lack "heat engines" which would
support oscillatory pulsations such as might be exhibited by,
say, dwarf Cepheids.

Change that statment to read, "white dwarf stars in general
lack 'heat engines' which would support SUSTAINED oscillatory
pulsations..."

Jerry