Time series spectroscopic and photometric observations of Massive DAV BPM37093

Abstract

BPM 37093 was the first of only a handful of massive (1.05+/-0.05 Msun; Bergeron et al. 2004; sitta 2000) WD pulsators discovered (Kanaan et al. 1992). These stars are particularly interesting because the exact process of core crystallization (Abrikosov 1960; Kirzhnitz 1960; Salpeter 1961). is poorly constrained by observation, yet adds a 1?2 Gyr uncertainty in the ages of the oldest white dwarf stars observed and hence, in the ages of associations that contain them. Last year, we discovered that ESO uses BPM 37093 as standard star and extracted corresponding spectra from the public archive. The data suggested a variation in the observed hydrogen line profiles that could potentially be due to pulsations, but the measurement did not reach a detection-quality threshold. To further explore this possibility, though, we obtained 4hrs of continuous time series spectroscopy of BPM37093 with Gemini in the Northern Spring of 2014. We present our preliminary results from these data along with those from the accompanying time series photometric observations we gathered from Mt. John (New Zealand), SAAO and PROMPT to support the Gemini observations.