2003ApJ...587L..43M

Due to a new global analysis method, it is now possible to measure the internal composition of pulsating white dwarf stars, even with relatively simple theoretical models. The precise internal mixture of carbon and oxygen is the largest single source of uncertainty in ages derived from white dwarf cosmochronometry, and it contains information about the rate of the astrophysically important, but experimentally uncertain, ¹²C(α,γ)¹⁶O nuclear reaction. Recent determinations of the internal composition and structure of two helium-atmosphere variable (DBV) white dwarf stars, GD 358 and CBS 114, initially led to conflicting implied rates for the ¹²C(α,γ)¹⁶O reaction. If both stars were formed through single-star evolution, then the initial analyses of their pulsation frequencies must have differed in some systematic way. I present improved fits to the two sets of pulsation data, resolving the tension between the initial results and leading to a value for the ¹²C(α,γ)¹⁶O reaction rate that is consistent with recent laboratory measurements.