A New Timescale for Period Change in the Pulsating DA White Dwarf WD
  0111+0018
  We report the most rapid rate of period change measured to date for a
pulsating DA (hydrogen atmosphere) white dwarf (WD), observed in the 292.9 s
mode of WD 0111+0018. The observed period change, faster than 10^{-12} s/s,
exceeds by more than two orders of magnitude the expected rate from cooling
alone for this class of slow and simply evolving pulsating WDs. This result
indicates the presence of an additional timescale for period evolution in these
pulsating objects. We also measure the rates of period change of nonlinear
combination frequencies and show that they share the evolutionary
characteristics of their parent modes, confirming that these combination
frequencies are not independent modes but rather artifacts of some nonlinear
distortion in the outer layers of the star.
