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Preprint 07b/02

FUSE Spectroscopy of the Two Prototype White Dwarfs With Signatures of a Super-hot Wind

K. WERNER (1), S. DREIZLER (1), J.W. KRUK (2), M.L. SITKO (3)

(1) Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Astronomie, Universität Tübingen, Sand 1, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
(2) Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A.
(3) University of Cincinnati, U.S.A.

To appear in: 13^th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, NATO Science Series

Abstract. The O VIII phenomenon describes the occurrence of ultra-high ionization absorption lines of the CNO elements (e.g. O VIII, N VII, C VI, and even Ne X) in the optical spectra hot of DO WDs. This requires temperatures of almost 10⁶K. Since the first discovery of two such objects (Werner et al. 1995) we realized that 50\% of all DO WDs are affected (Dreizler et al. 1995), hence it could be that all DO WDs experience this phenomenon at the beginning of the WD cooling sequence. The He II profiles are symmetric, hence line formation occurs in hydrostatic layers. However, we cannot uniquely fit the unusually strong profiles with any model atmosphere, preventing precise parameter determinations. The optical high ionization CNO lines have pronounced blue wings, corresponding to outflow velocities of up to several thousand km/s. We stress that none of the objects was detected in the X-ray region. The inferred low X-ray luminosity confirms that we do not see absorption lines from super-hot photospheres, but that the high temperatures are possibly localized along shock fronts in the wind.

Key words: -

Paper (37k gzip'ed Postscript including figures)

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