Related papers: Astro 2020 Science White Paper: Evolved Planetary …
White dwarfs with metal pollution are caused by the accretion of rocky dust from tidally disrupted minor bodies and are signposts for planetary systems. These minor bodies are perturbed by planets that have survived post-main sequence…
Observations of heavy metal pollution in white dwarf stars indicate that metal-rich planetesimals are frequently scattered into star-grazing orbits, tidally disrupted, and accreted onto the white dwarf surface, offering direct insight into…
We recommend that the search for exoplanets around binary stars be extended to include X-ray binaries in which the accretor is a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole. We present a novel idea for detecting planets bound to such mass…
We created the APOGEE-GALEX-\emph{Gaia} catalog to study white dwarfs binaries. This database aims to create a minimally biased sample of WD binary systems identified from a combination of GALEX, {\it Gaia}, and APOGEE data to increase the…
The discovery of planets orbiting at less than 1 au from their host star and less massive than Saturn in various exoplanetary systems revolutionized our theories of planetary formation. The fundamental question is whether these close-in…
Abridged. White dwarf stars are the final evolutionary stage of the vast majority of stars, including our Sun. The study of white dwarfs has potential applications to different fields of astrophysics. In particular, they can be used as…
Deriving precise stellar ages is a challenging task. Consequently, age-dependent relations - such as the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relations of the Milky Way, or the age-rotation-activity relation of low-mass stars - are…
M dwarfs have become increasingly important in the detection of exoplanets and the study of Earth-sized planets and their habitability. However, 20-30% of M dwarfs have companions that can impact the formation and evolution of planetary…
White dwarf spectroscopy shows that nearly half of white dwarf atmospheres contain metals that must have been accreted from planetary material that survived the red giant phases of stellar evolution. We can use metal pollution in white…
Approximately 70 percent of the nearby white dwarfs appear to be single stars, with the remainder being members of binary or multiple star systems. The most numerous and most easily identifiable systems are those in which the main sequence…
Several tens of white dwarfs are known to host circumstellar discs of dusty debris, thought to arise from the tidal disruption of rocky bodies originating in the star's remnant planetary system. This paper investigates the evolution of such…
White dwarfs (WD) with main-sequence (MS) companions are crucial probes of stellar evolution. However, due to the significant difference in their luminosities, the WD is often outshined by the MS star. The aim of this work is to find hidden…
We have extended our detailed survey of the local white dwarf population from 20 pc to 25 pc, effectively doubling the sample volume, which now includes 232 stars. In the process new stars within 20 pc have been added, a more uniform set of…
[abridged] We carry out numerical simulations to gauge the Gaia potential for precision astrometry of exoplanets orbiting a sample of known dM stars within 30 pc from the Sun. (1) It will be possible to accurately determine orbits and…
We utilize observations of 16 white dwarf stars to calculate and analyze the oxidation states of the parent bodies accreting onto the stars. Oxygen fugacity, a measure of overall oxidation state for rocks, is as important as pressure and…
A persistent question in exoplanet demographics is whether exoplanetary systems form from similar compositional building blocks to our own. Polluted white dwarf stars offer a unique way to address this question as they provide measurements…
A significant fraction of white dwarfs, the degenerate remnants of low- and intermediate-mass stars, host strong magnetic fields; yet, the origin and evolution of these magnetic fields remain poorly understood. Building a large,…
We develop an idealized dynamical model to predict the typical properties of outer extrasolar planetary systems, at radii beyond 5 AU. Our hypothesis is that dynamical evolution in outer planetary systems is controlled by a combination of…
WD 0145+234 is a white dwarf that is accreting metals from a circumstellar disc of planetary material. It has exhibited a substantial and sustained increase in 3-5 micron flux since 2018. Follow-up Spitzer photometry reveals that emission…
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…