Seismology of accreting white dwarfs

Pulsation modes have recently been observed in a handful of white dwarf (WD) primaries of cataclysmic variables, allowing an interesting new probe into the structure of accreting WD's. We briefly discuss the seismology of these objects, how stellar properties may be inferred from the observed mode frequencies, and mode driving mechanisms. For one pulsator, GW Lib, we have shown that a WD mass M = 1.05 M-circle dot and accreted envelope mass M-env = 0.4 x 10(-4) M-circle dot give the best match to the observed pulsation periods. A first exploration of mode driving favors T-eff = 14000K and a massive WD, but more work is necessary.