This animation (click on the picture in order to obtain a larger version!) shows phase resolved HST spectra (Burleigh and Jordan,
A&A in prep.) of the magnetic white dwarf REJ 0317-853 ( Barstow, Jordan, O'Donoghue, Burleigh, Napiwotzki, Harrop-Allin et al., 1995)).
The observed spectra were binned into 12 phases (0-11) covering the total rotational period of 725 seconds (making REJ 0317-853 the
fastest rotating known isolated white dwarf).
The model was calculated with the program for the radiative transport through the magnetized stellar atmosphere of a white dwarf
written by Stefan Jordan.
The magnetic field geometry was chosen to match the observed spectra best. We assumed a configuration, in which the magnetic field
was expanded into spherical harmonics up to l=2 (15 parameters). However, only the three latitude dependend parameters parametes for m=0 were significantly different from zero, so that the model shown here is almost
cylindrically symmetric.
The animation shows the variation of the visible hemisphere relative to the observer from the earth showing different parts of the
star at different times. The brighter the areas are, the larger the magnetic field is (the steps in greyscale correspond to steps of 100 MG).
The magnetic field of REJ 0317-853 is extremely nom-dipolar. A centered dipole varies by a factor of two between the poles and the
equator, while the configuration shown here varies between 170 (the darkes grey) and 800 Megagauss (the bright spot).
The dipole field strength is 413 MG, but the contribution of the quadrupole and octupole relative to the dipole amounts 60% and
38%, respectively.
For more details see the paper ( by Burleigh, Jordan & Schweizer 1998).
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