Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs
Abstract
The hydromagnetic structure of magnetically confined mountains on accreting white dwarfs is computed, alongside the effects of accretion on the reduction of the star's magnetic field. The equilibrium structure of the mountain is obtained by numerically solving the Grad-Shafranov equation with a self-consistent scheme that enforces magnetic flux freezing. For characteristic system parameters, it is shown that magnetic field lines are significantly deformed and dragged equatorwards by mountains with masses ∼10−3M⊙ that have a characteristic height of ∼105 cm. A mathematical relation is obtained for the maximum mass that a white dwarf can confine magnetically given the star's magnetic field and temperature. It is found that the accretion buries the star's magnetic field by reducing it by up to 10% of its pre-accretion value. The star's magnetic field remains dominantly dipolar, but with added multipolar components.
Related
- Gravitational Waves from Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs
- Discovery of a second-generation planet candidate accreting onto a white dwarf
- Temperature effects on white dwarfs in modified gravity
- Tidal Properties of White Dwarfs Admixed with Fermionic Dark Matter
- Slowly rotating white dwarfs in f (R, T ) = R + 2λT gravity: structure and stationary tidal response
BibTeX
@misc{rossetto2026magnetically,
title = {{Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs}},
author = {Pedro H. B. Rossetto and Manoel F. Sousa and Diego A. Falceta-Gonçalves},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.05868},
eprint = {2609.05868},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05868},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs
AU - Pedro H. B. Rossetto
AU - Manoel F. Sousa
AU - Diego A. Falceta-Gonçalves
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.05868
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05868
AB - The hydromagnetic structure of magnetically confined mountains on accreting white dwarfs is computed, alongside the effects of accretion on the reduction of the star's magnetic field. The equilibrium structure of the mountain is obtained by numerically solving the Grad-Shafranov equation with a self-consistent scheme that enforces magnetic flux freezing. For characteristic system parameters, it is shown that magnetic field lines are significantly deformed and dragged equatorwards by mountains with masses ∼10^−3M_⊙ that have a characteristic height of ∼10^5 cm. A mathematical relation is obtained for the maximum mass that a white dwarf can confine magnetically given the star's magnetic field and temperature. It is found that the accretion buries the star's magnetic field by reducing it by up to 10% of its pre-accretion value. The star's magnetic field remains dominantly dipolar, but with added multipolar components.
ER -