Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences

First Advisor

Véronique Petit

Second Advisor

Daniel Batcheldor

Third Advisor

Darin Ragozzine

Fourth Advisor

Isaac Silver

Abstract

We present long baseline Kepler photometry and ground-based Hale 20000 spectroscopy of five known white dwarfs, five newly identified white dwarfs, and a cataclysmic variable, V523 Lyr. Analysis of the photometric and spectroscopic data is used to characterize the white dwarfs and the cataclysmic variable, by determining preliminary fundamental parameters. We model the white dwarfs to determine their fundamental parameters, e↵ective temperature and surface gravity. If the e↵ective temperature of a white dwarf falls within a specific range, the white dwarf is expected to be a pulsator. We verified possible pulsation with complementary Kepler light curves when possible. The modeled e↵ective temperatures place one out of our ten white dwarfs in the pulsator regime. Pulsating white dwarfs help to refine the temperature range where pulsations occur and are used to probe their internal structure. V523 Lyr is hypothesized to be a dwarf nova type cataclysmic variable, which exhibits 28 outbursts over ⇠1000 days of Kepler data. The outbursts are quasi-periodic and occur approximately every 25 days and last ⇠9 days. V523 Lyr is hypothesized to be on the rise of an outburst during our spectral observations.

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