Related papers: Do White Dwarfs Sample Water-Rich Planetary Materi…
The inwards scattering of planetesimals towards white dwarfs is expected to be a stochastic process with variability on human time-scales. The planetesimals tidally disrupt at the Roche radius, producing dusty debris detectable as excess…
White dwarf stars frequently experience external pollution by heavy elements, and yet the intrinsically carbon-enriched DQ spectral class members fail to exhibit this phenomenon, representing a decades-old conundrum. This study reports a…
The bulk abundances of exoplanetesimals can be measured when they are accreted by white dwarfs. Recently, lithium from the accretion of exoplanetesimals was detected in relatively high levels in multiple white dwarfs. There are presently…
Many isolated, old white dwarfs (WDs) show surprising evidence of metals in their photospheres. Given that the timescale for gravitational sedimentation is astronomically short, this is taken as evidence for ongoing accretion, likely of…
Cool white dwarf stars are usually found to have an outer atmosphere that is practically pure in hydrogen or helium. However, a small fraction have traces of heavy elements that must originate from the accretion of extrinsic material, most…
We performed a chemical analysis of the asteroid-bearing white dwarf WD 1145+017 using optical and ultraviolet spectroscopic data from 25 epochs between 2015 and 2023. We present an updated gas disk model with improved opacity calculations…
We present optical and infrared characterization of the polluted DAZ white dwarf GALEX J193156.8+011745. Imaging and spectroscopy from the ultraviolet to the thermal infrared indicates that the white dwarf hosts excess infrared emission…
The study of exoplanets has led to many surprises, one of which is the discovery of planets larger than Earth yet smaller than Neptune, super Earths and gas dwarfs. No such planet is a member of the Solar System, yet they appear to be…
The fraction of white dwarfs found in wide binaries is estimated by cross referencing a catalogue of wide binaries with catalogues photometrically determined white-dwarf candidates and spectroscopically confirmed white dwarf stars. The…
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…
White dwarfs stars are known to be polluted by their active planetary systems, but little attention has been paid to the accretion of wind from low-mass companions. The capture of stellar or substellar wind by white dwarfs is one of few…
White dwarfs whose atmospheres are polluted by terrestrial-like planetary debris have become a powerful and unique tool to study evolved planetary systems. This paper presents results for an unbiased Spitzer IRAC search for circumstellar…
A large fraction of white dwarf stars shows photospheric chemical composition polluted by heavy elements accreted from a debris disk. Such debris disks result from the tidal disruption of rocky planetesimals which had survived to whole…
The polluted white dwarf (WD) system SDSS J122859.93+104032.9 (SDSS J1228) shows variable emission features interpreted as originating from a solid core fragment held together against tidal forces by its own internal strength, orbiting…
We present a study of the hypothesis that white dwarfs undergo a spectral change from hydrogen- to helium-dominated atmospheres using a volume-limited photometric sample drawn from the $Gaia$ DR2 catalogue, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey…
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…
A growing sample of white dwarfs (WDs) with metal-enriched atmospheres are accompanied by excess infrared emission, indicating that they are encircled by a compact dusty disk of solid debris. Such `WD debris disks' are thought to originate…
When a white dwarf (WD) is weakly magnetized and its accretion disk is thin, accreted material first reaches the WD's surface at its equator. This matter slows its orbit as it comes into co-rotation with the WD, dissipating kinetic energy…
There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that planetary systems can survive beyond the main sequence. Most commonly, white dwarfs are found to be accreting material from tidally disrupted asteroids, whose bulk compositions are reflected by…
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…