Related papers: The accretion-diffusion scenario for metals in coo…
A number of cool white dwarfs with metal traces, of spectral types DAZ, DBZ, and DZ have been found to exhibit infrared excess radiation due to circumstellar dust. The origin of this dust is possibly a tidally disrupted asteroid that formed…
White dwarfs with metal-polluted atmospheres have been studied widely in the context of the accretion of rocky debris from evolved planetary systems. One open question is the geometry of accretion and how material arrives and mixes in the…
This letter reports statistically significant changes in the equivalent widths of MgII and CaII lines in the dusty and polluted white dwarf WD 0106-328, based on six epochs of spectroscopy using the VLT and Keck spanning 25 yr. Furthermore,…
Many isolated white dwarfs (WDs) show spectral evidence of atmospheric metal pollution. Since heavy element sedimentation timescales are short, this most likely indicates ongoing accretion. Accreted metals encounter a variety of mixing…
Elements heavier than hydrogen or helium that are present in the atmospheres of white dwarfs with effective temperatures lower than 25,000 K, are believed to be the result of accretion. By measuring the abundances of these elements and by…
Due to the short settling times of metals in DA white dwarf atmospheres, any white dwarfs with photospheric metals must be actively accreting. It is therefore natural to expect that the metals may not be deposited uniformly on the surface…
A non negligible fraction of white dwarf stars show the presence of heavy elements in their atmospheres. The most accepted explanation for this contamination is the accretion of material coming from tidally disrupted planetesimals, which…
During the low optical brightness states of AM Herculis systems (polars) when accretion has declined to a very low value, the underlying magnetic white dwarf photosphere can be modelled without the complication of thermal bremstrahlung and…
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…
The atmospheres of a large proportion of white dwarf stars are polluted by heavy elements that are expected to sink out of visible layers on short timescales. This has been interpreted as a signature of ongoing accretion of debris from…
(Abridged) We present the results of the first unbiased survey for metal pollution among H-atmosphere (DA) white dwarfs with cooling ages of 20-200 Myr and 17000K < Teff < 27000K, using HST COS in the far UV between 1130 and 1435 A. The…
Numerical experiments have been performed to investigate the thermal behavior of a cooled down white dwarf of initial mass $M_{\rm WD} = 0.516 M_{\sun}$ which accretes hydrogen-rich matter with Z = 0.02 at the rate $\dot{M}=10^{-8}$ \msun…
The accretion of rocky material is responsible for the presence of heavy elements in the atmospheres of a large fraction of white dwarf stars. Those objects represent a unique opportunity to infer the bulk composition of exoplanetesimals.…
There is overwhelming evidence that white dwarfs host planetary systems; revealed by the presence, disruption, and accretion of planetary bodies. A lower limit on the frequency of white dwarfs that host planetary material has been estimated…
Observations of planetary material polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs are an important probe of the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Medium- and high-resolution optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven white dwarfs…
We present a small data base of homogeneously derived photospheric element abundances of DZ white dwarfs and related objects. Our previous investigations are supplemented with the analysis of ultraviolet spectra for nine white dwarfs. Of…
Hydrogen atmosphere white dwarfs with metal lines, so-called DAZs, show evidence for ongoing accretion of material onto their surfaces. Some DAZs are known to have unresolved M dwarf companions, which could account for the observed…
We present ISOCAM 7 micron and 15 micron observations of 12 nearby white dwarfs, 6 of which have been found to have metals such as Ca, Mg and Fe in their photospheres. Our purpose was to search for an excess of infrared emission above the…
A re-evaluation of time-averaged accretion rates at DBZ-type white dwarfs points to historical, time-averaged rates significantly higher than the currently observed episodes at their DAZ counterparts. The difference between the ongoing,…
In binary systems, the helium accretion onto carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs (WDs) plays a vital role in many astrophysical scenarios, especially in supernovae type Ia. Moreover, ignition density for accretion rate $\dot{M} \lesssim 10^{-9}…