White dwarfs represent the most common end stage of stellar evolution and are important for a range of astrophysical questions. The high-resolution ultraviolet spectroscopic capability of the Habitable World Observatory (HWO) offers a unique capability to characterize white dwarfs. In this documents, we focus on two specific science cases for HWO -- white dwarfs as probes of extrasolar planet compositions, and fundamental astrophysics. HWO will have the sensitivity to measure a suite of heavy elements, such as S, C, O, Fe, and Si, in a large sample of polluted white dwarfs to constrain the water content and the light elements in the cores of extrasolar planets. HWO can also be used to search for any small variation on the fine structure constant in the presence of strong gravity. Both science cases require a minimum resolving power of 60,000, and a ultraviolet coverage down to at least 900 Angstrom.
@article{arxiv.2507.03029,
title = {White dwarfs as probes of extrasolar planet compositions and fundamental astrophysics},
author = {Siyi Xu and Martin Barstow and Andy Buchan and Érika Le Bourdais and Patrick Dufour},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.03029},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
11 pages; 7 figures; will be published in ASP conference proceedings of the HWO2025 conference