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Related papers: The smallest planetary drivers of white dwarf poll…

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White dwarf stars that enter the tidal radius of black holes with masses $\lesssim$ $10^5$ M$_{\odot}$ are doomed to be ripped apart by tidal forces. Black holes in this mass range between stellar black holes and supermassive black holes…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-04-02 Kate Maguire , Michael Eracleous , Peter G. Jonker , Morgan MacLeod , Stephan Rosswog

To date, hundreds of sub-stellar objects with masses between $1-80\ M_{\rm Jup}$ have been detected orbiting main-sequence stars. The current convention uses the deuterium-burning limit, $M_c \approx 13 M_{\rm Jup}$ to divide this…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-18 Gregory J. Gilbert , Judah Van Zandt , Erik A. Petigura , Steven Giacalone , Andrew W. Howard , Luke B. Handley

A gas giant planet which survives the giant branch stages of evolution at a distance of many au and then is subsequently perturbed sufficiently close to a white dwarf will experience orbital shrinkage and circularization due to star-planet…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-09-25 Dimitri Veras , Jim Fuller

White dwarfs are the most common endpoints of stellar evolution. They are often found in close binary systems in which the white dwarf is accreting matter from a companion star, either via an accretion disc or channelled along the white…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2023-03-20 Natalie A. Webb

Terrestrial planets born beyond 1-3 AU have been theorized to avoid being engulfed during the red-giant phases of their host stars. Nevertheless, only a few gas-giant planets have been observed around white dwarfs (WDs) -- the end product…

Brown dwarfs constitute a missing link between low-mass stars and giant planets. Their atmospheres display chemical species typical of planets, and one could wonder whether they also have weather-like patterns. While brown dwarf surface…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-05 Étienne Artigau

Most of low- and intermediate-mass stars that populate the Universe will end their lives as white dwarf stars. These ancient stellar remnants have encrypted inside a precious record of the evolutionary history of the progenitor stars,…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2014-12-23 A. H. Córsico

The prediction of the spins of the compact remnants is a fundamental goal of the theory of stellar evolution. Here, we confront the predictions for white dwarf spins from evolutionary models including rotation with observational…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 M. P. L. Suijs , N. Langer , A. -J. Poelarends , S. -C. Yoon , A. Heger , F. Herwig

White dwarfs containing orbiting planetesimals or their debris represent crucial benchmarks by which theoretical investigations of post-main-sequence planetary systems may be calibrated. The photometric transit signatures of likely…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-02-12 Dimitri Veras , Catriona H. McDonald , Valeri V. Makarov

Observed planetary debris in white dwarf atmospheres predominately originate from the destruction of small bodies on highly eccentric ($>0.99$) orbits. Despite their importance, these minor planets have coupled physical and orbital…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-08 Valeri V. Makarov , Dimitri Veras

The suite of over 60 known planetary debris discs which orbit white dwarfs, along with detections of multiple minor planets in these systems, motivate investigations about the migration properties of planetesimals embedded within the discs.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-06-28 Dimitri Veras , Shigeru Ida , Evgeni Grishin , Scott J. Kenyon , Benjamin C. Bromley

We investigate compact objects formed by dark matter admixed with ordinary matter made of neutron star matter and white dwarf material. We consider non-self annihilating dark matter with an equation-of-state given by an interacting Fermi…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-02-21 Laura Tolos , Juergen Schaffner-Bielich , Yannick Dengler

White dwarfs are often found in close binaries with stellar or even substellar companions. It is generally thought that these compact binaries form via common envelope evolution, triggered by the progenitor of the white dwarf expanding…

Brown dwarfs, which straddle the mass range between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their ubiquity makes the question of their origin an important one both for our…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Ray Jayawardhana

Nearly every star known to host planets will become a white dwarf, and nearly 100 planet-hosts are now known to be accompanied by binary stellar companions. Here, we determine how a binary companion triggers instability in otherwise…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-12-21 Dimitri Veras , Nikolaos Georgakarakos , Ian Dobbs-Dixon , Boris T. Gaensicke

White dwarfs (WDs) often show metal lines in their spectra, indicating accretion of asteroidal material. Our Sun is to become a WD in several Gyr. Here, we examine how the solar WD accretes from the three major small body populations: the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-01-14 Daohai Li , Alexander J. Mustill , Melvyn B. Davies

We present follow-up photometry and spectroscopy of ZTF J0328$-$1219 strengthening its status as a white dwarf exhibiting transiting planetary debris. Using TESS and Zwicky Transient Facility photometry, along with follow-up high speed…

Several white dwarfs with atmospheric metal pollution have been found to host small planetary bodies (planetesimals) orbiting near the tidal disruption radius. We study the physical properties and dynamical origin of these bodies under the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-10-09 Christopher E. O'Connor , Dong Lai

Existing determinations show that n(C)/n(Fe) is more than a factor of 10 below solar in the atmospheres of three white dwarfs that appear to be externally-polluted. These results are not easily explained if the stars have accreted…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 M. Jura

The tidal evolution of planets orbiting brown dwarfs (BDs) presents an interesting case study because BDs' terrestrial planet forming region is located extremely close-in. In fact, the habitable zones of BDs range from roughly 0.001 to 0.03…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-30 Emeline Bolmont , Sean N. Raymond , Jérémy Leconte