ROTATION AND MAGNETISM IN WHITE-DWARFS

New rotational ephemerides for four isolated magnetic white dwarfs are derived from more than a decade of polarimetric monitoring. The stars span the period range 99m-17d.9 and effectively double the number of white dwarfs with measured rotation periods. In addition, five stars whose polarization is constant on time scales up to at least 10 years may have very long rotation periods (P ≳ 100 yr). The lack of very short period white dwarfs attests to the coupling of angular momentum into the giant envelope or interstellar medium during late stages of evolution, but thus far there is no evidence that this process involves magnetic braking. With few exceptions, the disk-averaged fields of magnetic degenerates are dominated by dipolar patterns (as opposed to higher order multipoles or spots), and cover a broad range of obliquity to the rotation axis.