Related papers: A Search for Asteroids, Moons, and Rings Orbiting …

A large fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) may host planets in their habitable zones. These planets may provide our best chance to detect bio-markers on a transiting exoplanet, thanks to the diminished contrast ratio between the Earth-sized WD…

Planetary materials orbiting white dwarf stars reveal the ultimate fate of the planets of the Solar System and all known transiting exoplanets. Observed metal pollution and infrared excesses from debris disks support that planetary systems…

We describe a high-precision Doppler search for giant planets orbiting a well-defined sample of metal-poor dwarfs in the field. This experiment constitutes a fundamental test of theoretical predictions which will help discriminate between…

Previous work has demonstrated that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has the capability to detect transiting planets around main sequence stars in relatively short ($<$ 20 days) periods and using standard algorithms for transit…

We make predictions for the rate of discovery of eclipsing white dwarf-main sequence (WD-MS) binaries in terrestrial-planet transit searches, taking the planned Kepler and Eddington missions as examples. We use a population synthesis model…

The majority of stars both host planetary systems and evolve into a white dwarf (WD). To understand their post-main-sequence (PMS) planetary system evolution, we present a search for transiting/eclipsing planets and other Substellar Bodies…

Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…

White dwarfs are routinely observed to have polluted atmospheres, and sometimes significant infrared excesses, that indicate ongoing accretion of circumstellar dust and rocky debris. Typically this debris is assumed to be in the form of a…

Statistical analyses of large surveys for transiting planets such as the Kepler mission must account for systematic errors and biases. Transit detection depends not only on the planet's radius and orbital period, but also on host star…

Kepler's first major discoveries are two hot objects orbiting stars in its field. These may be the cores of stars that have each been eroded or disrupted by a companion star. The companion, which is the star monitored today, is likely to…

The Gaia spacecraft presents an unprecedented opportunity to reveal the population of long period (a>1\,au) exoplanets orbiting stars across the H-R diagram, including white dwarfs. White dwarf planetary systems have played an important…

The last several years have brought about a dynamic shift in the view of exoplanetary systems in the post-main sequence, perhaps epitomized by the evidence for surviving rocky planetary bodies at white dwarfs. Coinciding with the launch of…

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered thousands of planetary systems, ~20% of which are found to host multiple transiting planets. This relative paucity (compared to the high fraction of single transiting systems) is postulated to result…

Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets outside the solar system, most of which orbit stars that will eventually evolve into red giants and then into white dwarfs. During the red giant phase, any close-orbiting planets will be…

Planetary systems that orbit white dwarf stars can be studied via spectroscopic observations of the stars themselves. Numerous white dwarfs are seen to have accreted mostly rocky minor planets, the remnants of which are present in the…

To date the search for habitable Earth-like planets has primarily focused on nuclear burning stars. I propose that this search should be expanded to cool white dwarf stars that have expended their nuclear fuel. I define the continuously…

White dwarfs are one of the few types of stellar objects for which we know almost nothing about the possible existence of companion planets. Recent evidence for metal contaminated atmospheres, circumstellar debris disks and transiting…

Although there is abundant and diverse observational evidence in support of white dwarf stars hosting planets or debris disks which form in the catastrophic destruction of various planetary bodies, the key processes that explain these…

White dwarf planetary systems provide a unique way to measure the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Extrasolar asteroids/comets/moons which have survived the evolution of their host star can end up in the atmosphere of the white…

White dwarfs are the end state of most stars, including the Sun, after they exhaust their nuclear fuel. Between 1/4 and 1/2 of white dwarfs have elements heavier than helium in their atmospheres, even though these elements should rapidly…