Thirty years of white dwarf research in retrospect -- The mass distribution and luminosity function of hot DA white dwarfs -- The stellar formation rate and the white dwarf luminosity function -- On the luminosity function of white dwarfs in wide binaries -- A new determination of the luminosity function of hot white dwarfs -- The luminosity function of dim white dwarfs -- Theoretical white dwarf luminosity functions: DA models -- Cool White Dwarfs in a southern proper motions survey -- The born again AGB phenomenon -- What is wrong with stellar modeling -- Transformation of AGB stars into white dwarfs -- The role of G in the cooling of white dwarfs -- Calibrating white dwarf cosmochronology -- Thermodynamic quantities for evolutionary and pulsational calculations -- Numerical simulations of convection and overshoot in the envelope of DA white dwarfs -- The formation of massive white dwarfs and the progenitor mass of Sirius B -- HST observations of white dwarf cooling sequences in open clusters -- Effects of updated neutrino rates in evolutionary white dwarf models -- Non-LTE line blanketed model atmospheres of hot, metal-rich white dwarfs -- New He I line profiles for synthetic spectra of DB white dwarfs -- Line broadening in hot stellar atmospheres -- Diffusion in PG 1159 stars -- Pure hydrogen in the spectrum of GD229 -- Spectroscopic effects of T-inhomogeneities in the atmospheres of DA white dwarfs -- The ? line polarization in magnetic white dwarfs -- Compton scattering in stellar atmospheres at T eff below 100 000 K -- Hydrogen absorption in high field magnetic white dwarfs -- LTE for the analysis of white dwarfs? -- Spherically symmetric and plane parallel NLTE model atmospheres for hot high gravity stars -- The influence of the bound-free opacity on the radiation from magnetic DA white dwarfs -- Models of 3 magnetic white dwarf stars in flux and polarization -- Cyclotron absorption coefficients in the Stokes formalism -- IUE Echelle observations of the photospheres and circumstellar environments of hot white dwarfs -- The mass distribution of DA white dwarfs -- PG 1159 stars and their evolutionary link to DO white dwarfs -- Detection of ultra-hot pre-white dwarfs -- White dwarfs in old planetary nebulae -- New analyses of helium-rich pre-white dwarfs -- The high mass white dwarf in HR 8210 -- The blue edge of the ZZ Ceti instability strip -- L745-46A: Lyman alpha broadening and metal abundances -- A model for the WC-type central star WR 72 -- White dwarf observations with the ultraviolet imaging telescope -- LB 8827: A DB star with peculiar line profiles -- Magnetic or pressure shifts of carbon bands in very cool helium-rich white dwarfs? -- IUE and optical observations of DAO white dwarfs -- CD-38° 10980 revisited -- Analysis of the DO white dwarf PG 1034+001: Solution of the He II 4686Å line problem -- Upper limits for mass-loss rates of PG 1159 stars -- Exposed white dwarfs in dwarf novae -- The spatial and kinematic distributions of field hot subdwarfs -- Fundamental properties of magnetic white dwarfs in CVs -- Searching for binary white dwarfs: A progress report -- Iron- and nickel abundances of sdO stars -- The HST white dwarf project: V 471 Tauri and Procyon B -- The interacting binary white dwarfs -- GD1401 and GD984: X-ray binaries with degenerate components -- The white dwarf in AM Her -- The final results of: A NLTE analysis of the helium-rich sdO stars in the Palomar Green survey of high galactic latitude blue objects -- 3He- and metal anomalies in subluminous B stars -- HST observations of the white dwarf in V471 Tauri -- Hot stars in globular clusters -- From interacting binary systems to DB white dwarfs -- White dwarfs in AM CVn systems -- Hot subdwarf stars in binary systems -- CCD imaging, optical spectroscopy and UBVRIJHK photometry of cool companions to hot subdwarfs -- The multi-periodic pulsating PG1159 white dwarf PG0122+200 -- Asteroseismology of DA white dwarf stars -- The hydrogen layer mass of the ZZ Ceti stars -- Grasping at the hot end of ZZ Ceti variability -- WET experiences in Central Asian observatories -- The vista for seismological thermometry of the DBV white dwarfs -- Ionized helium and carbon in the DBV GD358 -- Stabilized restoration of pulsating white dwarf spectra -- Extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy of white dwarfs -- White dwarfs in close binaries in the extreme ultraviolet explorer all-sky survey -- Constraints on DAO white dwarf composition from the ROSAT EUV survey -- Spectroscopy of the lyman continuum of hot DAs using the extreme ultraviolet explorer -- An EUV selected sample of DA white dwarfs -- The EUVE spectrum of the hot DA white dwarf PG 1234+482 -- ORFEUS and EUVE observations of the cool DO HD 149499 B -- ROSAT studies of DA white dwarfs and the calibration of the PSPC detector.

This book is based on the Proceedings of the 9th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, the most recent in a series of meetings which have become the most important events in this field. Many of the contributions, however, have been expanded considerably by the authors to include introductory material. This makes this volume a useful, up-to-date introduction into the present status of observations and theory of white dwarf stars.