Related papers: Planetary engulfment as a trigger for white dwarf …
Planets have been observed in tight binary systems with separations less than 20 AU. A likely formation scenario for such systems involves a dynamical capture, after which high relative inclinations are likely and may lead to Kozai…
Understanding the fate of planetary systems through white dwarfs which accrete debris crucially relies on tracing the orbital and physical properties of exo-asteroids during the giant branch phase of stellar evolution. Giant branch…
The presence of highly eccentric extrasolar planets in binary stellar systems suggests that the Kozai effect has played an important role in shaping their dynamical architectures. However, the formation of planets in inclined binary systems…
Planetary systems are born in the disks of gas, dust and rocky fragments that surround newly formed stars. Solid content assembles into ever-larger rocky fragments that eventually become planetary embryos. These then continue their growth…
The origin of highly-magnetized white dwarfs has remained a mystery since their initial discovery. Recent observations indicate that the formation of high-field magnetic white dwarfs is intimately related to strong binary interactions…
Planetary engulfment events involve the chemical assimilation of a planet into a star's external layer. This can cause a change in the chemical pattern of the stellar atmosphere in a way that mirrors the composition of the rocky object…
We investigate whether the recently suggested rotation and crystallization driven dynamo can explain the apparent increase of magnetism in old metal polluted white dwarfs. We find that the effective temperature distribution of polluted…
One of the most remarkable properties of extrasolar planets is their high orbital eccentricities. Observations have shown that at least 20% of these planets, including some with particularly high eccentricities, are orbiting a component of…
White dwarfs which exhibit transit signatures of planetary debris and accreted planetary material provide exceptional opportunities to probe the material composition and dynamical structure of planetary systems. Although previous…
More than half of stars reside in binary or multiple star systems and many planets have been found in binary systems. From theoretical point of view, however, whether or not the planetary formation proceeds in a binary system is a very…
White dwarf-white dwarf (WD-WD) mergers may lead to type Ia supernovae events. Thompson (2011) suggested that many such binaries are produced in hierarchical triple systems. The tertiary induces eccentricity oscillations in the inner binary…
The engulfment of planets by their host stars is an expected outcome of various dynamical processes and has been invoked to explain a variety of observed stellar properties, such as rapid rotation, chemical abundance abnormalities, and…
The evolution of one member of a stellar binary into a white dwarf has been proposed as a mechanism that triggers the formation of close-in gas giant planets. The star's asymmetric mass loss during the AGB stage gives it a "kick" that can…
The existence of water in extrasolar planetary systems is of great interest as it constrains the potential for habitable planets and life. Here, we report the identification of a circumstellar disk that resulted from the destruction of a…
We present simulations of the accretion of a massive planet or brown dwarf by an AGB star. In our scenario, close planets will be engulfed by the star, spiral-in and be dissipated in the ``accretion region'' located at the bottom of the…
A significant fraction of the mature FGK stars have cool dusty disks at least an orders of magnitudes brighter than the solar system's outer zodiacal light. Since such dusts must be continually replenished, they are generally assumed to be…
Planet formation around one component of a tight, eccentric binary system such as $\gamma$ Cephei (with semimajor axis around 20 AU) is theoretically challenging because of destructive high-velocity collisions between planetesimals. Despite…
Recent observational campaigns have shown that multi-planet systems seem to be abundant in our Galaxy. Moreover, it seems that these systems might have distant companions, either planets, brown-dwarfs or other stellar objects. These…
The initial stages of planet formation in circumstellar gas discs proceed via dust grains that collide and build up larger and larger bodies (Safronov 1969). How this process continues from metre-sized boulders to kilometre-scale…
Mergers of binaries comprised of compact objects can give rise to explosive transient events, heralding the birth of exotic objects which cannot be formed through single star evolution. Using a large number of direct N-body simulations, we…