The Queens College White Dwarf Research Group

Welcome to the home page for Keaton Bell’s astronomy research group headquartered at Queens College of the City University of New York. Together, we work on problems relating to white dwarf stars, especially focusing on their pulsations and exoplanets, as well as more general problems in time domain astronomy and stellar astrophysics.

Current Group Members

Recent Group Publications

• “Mode Instability and a Massive, Isolated Outburst in the Pulsating White Dwarf GD 1212,” Hermes, J. J., Bell, K. J., Dublin, A. H., et al. 2026, ApJ, in press; arXiv:2606.09987
• “White Dwarf Variability,” Bell, K. J. 2026, Encyclopedia of Astrophysics, First Edition, Elsevier, Eds: Ilya Mandel
• “Gravitational Influence from Planets on the Measured Rates of Period Change of Pulsating White Dwarfs,” Yao, L. X., Bell, K. J., & Dublin, A., 2025, ApJ, 991, 168
• “APOKASC-3: The Third Joint Spectroscopic and Asteroseismic Catalog for Evolved Stars in the Kepler Fields,” Pinsonneault, M. H., Zinn, J. C., Tayar, J., et al. (incl. Bell, K. J.) 2024, ApJS, 276, 69
• “Photometric White Dwarf Rotation,” Oliveira da Rosa, G., Kepler, S. O., Soethe, L. T. T., Romero, A. D., and Bell, K. J. 2024, ApJ, 974, 314
• “Following the Pulsations in the Long Term Cooling of GW Librae and V386 Serpentis,” Szkody, P., van Roestel, J., Bell, K. J., et al. 2024, AJ, 168, 114
• “Constraints from Parallaxes and Average Period Spacings in the Asteroseismic Study of Eight Hydrogen-atmosphere Pulsating White Dwarfs,” Bischoff-Kim, A., & Bell, K. J., 2024, ApJ, 970, 27

Former Group Members

• Luna Miles (graduated from New York City College of Technology)
• Swan Yi Htet (B.S. Physics from QC; currently enrolled at Columbia University Engineering)
• Ling Xuan Yao (M.S. Physics from QC; working at Lockheed Martin)
• Chris Zapata (former AstroCom NYC intern; currently a Physics PhD student at University of Maryland)
• Abby Shaum (former CUNY Physics PhD student; currently a PhD student with Columbia University Earth and Environmental Sciences)