White-dwarf cooling is the gradual loss of a white dwarf's stored thermal energy after sustained core fusion has ended. Dense degenerate electrons provide most of the pressure support, so luminosity can decline while the star remains mechanically supported.
Cooling depends on core heat capacity, envelope insulation, early neutrino losses and later crystallization processes. A population's luminosity distribution therefore contains age information only through a cooling model and its formation history. Crystallization can delay the decline through latent heat and compositional energy release; luminosity is not a simple universal linear clock.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.