Unlocking the Secrets of White Dwarf Stars by Hugh M. Van Horn

Author:Hugh M. Van Horn
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Koester rapidly made himself a leading expert in modeling the outer layers and atmospheres of these stars, hardly a surprising focus for someone trained in the school established by the renowned German astrophysicist Albrecht Unsöld, and he proved to be equally at home with theoretical calculations as with observations. In 1979 Koester—together with his colleagues H. Schulz, and Volker Weidemann—published a grid of models for the classical DA white dwarfs.14

During the 1980s, Koester advanced in academic rank as far as he could at Kiel; at that time there were no professorships open. Instead, he accepted a faculty appointment at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he joined Arlo Landolt and Ganesh Chanmugam (1939–2004) in continuing work to advance our understanding of white dwarf stars. When his mentor, Volker Weidemann, retired as Professor of Astronomy at Kiel in 1992, Koester was naturally chosen to fill the vacancy, becoming the new director of the Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik at the University of Kiel.

The other group specializing in calculations for white dwarf model atmospheres began in the late 1970s, when François Wesemael (1954–2011; see Figure 14.4) came to the University of Rochester to undertake graduate work in theoretical astrophysics. Born in Viet Nam, François moved with his family first to France and then to Luxemburg. The Wesemaels finally settled in Canada, where François graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1974. That fall, he entered the University of Rochester, and a year or two later he ended up working with myself and Malcolm Savedoff to construct model atmospheres for white dwarfs.

Figure 14.4François Wesemael at the Université de Montréal in 2003. Image courtesy G. Fontaine. Reproduced with permission

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