Related papers: Planetary engulfment as a trigger for white dwarf …
Planetary debris is observed in the atmospheres of over 1,000 white dwarfs, and two white dwarfs are now observed to contain orbiting minor planets. Exoasteroids and planetary core fragments achieve orbits close to the white dwarf through…
Accretion of mass onto a white dwarf (WD) in a binary system can lead to stellar explosions. If a WD accretes from stellar wind of a distant evolved giant in a symbiotic binary, it can undergo occasional outbursts in which it brightens by…
Recent observations show that planet can reside in close binary systems with stellar separation of only about 20 AU. However, planet formation in such close binary systems is a challenge to current theory. One of the major theoretical…
We investigate the formation of planetesimals via the gravitational instability of solids that have settled to the midplane of a circumstellar disk. Vertical shear between the gas and a subdisk of solids induces turbulent mixing which…
Planet Planet scattering is a leading dynamical mechanism invoked to explain the present orbital distribution of exoplanets. Many stars belong to binary systems, therefore it is important to understand how this mechanism works in presence…
As the descendants of stars with masses less than 8 M$_{\odot}$ on the main sequence, white dwarfs provide a unique way to constrain planetary occurrence around intermediate-mass stars (spectral types BAF) that are otherwise difficult to…
Practically all known planet hosts will evolve into white dwarfs, and large parts of their planetary systems will survive this transition - the same is true for the solar system beyond the orbit of Mars. Spectroscopy of white dwarfs…
Planets and other low-mass binary companions to stars face a variety of potential fates as their host stars move off the main sequence and grow to subgiants and giants. Stellar mass loss tends to make orbits expand, and tidal torques tend…
Circumplanetary discs can be linearly unstable to the growth of disc tilt in the tidal potential of the star-planet system. We use three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to characterize the disc conditions needed for instability,…
Metal pollution in white dwarf photospheres originates from the accretion of some combination of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, boulders, pebbles and dust. When large bodies reside in dynamically stagnant locations -- unable themselves…
In this letter we consider the evolution of a planetary system around a star inside a wide binary. We simulate numerically the evolution of the planetary orbits for both co-planar and highly-inclined systems. We find that the Kozai…
Approximately 25--50\% of white dwarfs (WDs) exhibit metal absorption lines in their photospheres, interpreted as evidence of ongoing/recent accretion of planetary debris from remnant systems. Previous theoretical studies have suggested…
We present new results on PHL 5038AB, a widely separated binary system composed of a white dwarf and a brown dwarf, refining the white and brown dwarf parameters and determining the binary separation to be $66^{+12}_{-24}$~AU. New spectra…
We present Keck High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) observations and model atmosphere analysis for two nearby, cool, helium-dominated atmosphere white dwarfs that have been polluted by accretion: WD J1927-0355 and WD J2141-3300.…
Planets form in disks around young stars. Interactions with these disks cause them to migrate and thus affect their final orbital periods. We suggest that the connection between planets and disks may be deeper and involve a symbiotic…
Previously published observations of 60 externally-polluted white dwarfs show that none of the stars have accreted from intact refractory-dominated parent bodies composed mainly of Al, Ca and O, although planetesimals with such a…
White dwarf planetary systems uniquely link the bulk elemental composition of exoplanetary material to the mineralogy as photospheric abundances can be compared to circumstellar dust mineralogy. This study re-examines Spitzer/IRS spectra of…
Observational evidence of white dwarf planetary systems is dominated by the remains of exo-asteroids through accreted metals, debris discs, and orbiting planetesimals. However, exo-planets in these systems play crucial roles as perturbing…
The Kozai mechanism often destabilises high inclination orbits. It couples changes in the eccentricity and inclination, and drives high inclination, circular orbits to low inclination, eccentric orbits. In a recent study of the dynamics of…
It is difficult to study the interiors of terrestrial planets in the Solar System and the problem is magnified for distant exoplanets. However, sometimes nature is helpful. Some planetary bodies are torn to fragments and consumed by the…