Abstract
The development of far-UV astronomy has been particularly important for the study of hot white dwarf stars. Asignificant fraction of their emergent flux appears in the far-UV and traces of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium are, in general, only detected in this waveband or at shorter wavelengths that are also only accessible from space. Although whitedwarfs have been studied in the far-UVthroughout the past ∼25 years, since the launch of IUE, only a few tens of objects have been studied in great detail and a much larger sample is required to gain a detailed understanding of the evolution of hot white dwarfs and the physical processes that determine their appearance. We review here the current knowledge regarding hot white dwarfs and outline whatwork needs to be carried out by future far-UV observatories.
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