Related papers: Dust Production and Depletion in Evolved Planetary…
A significant fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) exhibit signs of ongoing accretion of refractory elements at rates $\sim10^3$--$10^7$ kg s$^{-1}$, among which, 37 WDs were detected to harbor dusty debris disks. Such a concurrence requires not…
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…
A significant fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) are observed to be polluted with metals despite high surface gravities and short settling times. The current theoretical model for this pollution is accretion of rocky bodies delivered to the WD…
We report a Spitzer/IRAC search for infrared excesses around white dwarfs, including 14 newly-observed targets and 16 unpublished archived stars. We find a substantial infrared excess around two warm white dwarfs --- J220934.84+122336.5 and…
We study interstellar dust evolution in various environments by means of chemical evolution models for galaxies of different morphological types. We start from the formalism developed by Dwek (1998) to study dust evolution in the solar…
Volatiles, notably water, are key to the habitability of rocky planets. The presence of water in planetary material can be inferred from the atmospheric oxygen abundances of polluted white dwarfs, but this interpretation is often complex.…
Recent infrared observations have revealed presence of compact (radii < R_Sun) debris disks around more than a dozen of metal-rich white dwarfs (WD), likely produced by tidal disruption of asteroids. Accretion of high-Z material from these…
1-3 per cent of white dwarfs are orbited by planetary dusty debris detectable as infrared emission in excess above the white dwarf flux. In a rare subset of these systems, a gaseous disc component is also detected via emission lines of the…
We present HST ultraviolet spectroscopy of the white dwarfs PG0843+516, PG1015+161, SDSS1228+1040, and GALEX1931+0117, which accrete circumstellar planetary debris formed from the destruction of asteroids. Combined with optical data, a…
The destiny of planetary systems through the late evolution of their host stars is very uncertain. We report a metal-rich gas disk around a moderately hot and young white dwarf. A dynamical model of the double-peaked emission lines…
Observational data on the dust content of circumstellar disks show that the median dust content in disks around pre-main sequence stars in nearby star forming regions seem to increase from about 1 Myr to about 2 Myr, and then decline with…
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…
Debris disks are dusty, gas-poor disks around main sequence stars (Backman & Paresce 1993; Lagrange, Backman & Artymowicz 2000; Zuckerman 2001). Micron-sized dust grains are inferred to exist in these systems from measurements of their…
Gaseous and dust debris disks around white dwarfs (WDs) are formed from tidally disrupted planetary bodies. This offers an opportunity to determine the composition of exoplanetary material by measuring element abundances in the accreting…
White dwarfs with emission lines from gaseous debris discs are among the rarest examples of planetary remnant hosts, but at the same time they are key objects for studying the final evolutionary stage of planetary systems. Making use of the…
A growing number of debris discs have been detected around metal-polluted white dwarfs. They are thought to be originated from tidally disrupted exoplanetary bodies and responsible for metal accretion onto host WDs. To explain (1) the…
We reconsider the origin and processing of dust in elliptical galaxies. We theoretically formulate the evolution of grain size distribution, taking into account dust supply from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and dust destruction by…
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.…
We have performed a comprehensive ground-based observational program aimed at characterizing the circumstellar material orbiting three single white dwarf stars previously known to possess gaseous disks. Near-infrared imaging unambiguously…
Transition disks, with inner regions depleted in dust and gas, could represent later stages of protoplanetary disk evolution when newly-formed planets are emerging. The PDS 70 system has attracted particular interest because of the presence…