Pollution of single white dwarfs by accretion of many small asteroids

Abstract

Extrapolating from the solar system's asteroid belt, we propose that externally-contaminated white dwarfs without an infrared excess may be experiencing continuous accretion of gas-phase material that ultimately is derived from the tidal destruction of multiple small asteroids. If this scenario is correct, then observations of metal-polluted white dwarfs may lead to determining the bulk elemental compositions of ensembles of extrasolar minor planets.

AJ, in press, 19 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• Signs of a faint disc population at polluted white dwarfs
• Variable Emission from a Gaseous Disc around a Metal-Polluted White Dwarf
• X-ray and Infrared Observations of Two Externally-Polluted White Dwarfs
• Scars of Intense Accretion Episodes at Metal-Rich White Dwarfs
• Hydrogen delivery onto white dwarfs from remnant exo-Oort cloud comets
• Precise Atmospheric Parameters for the Shortest Period Binary White Dwarfs: Gravitational Waves, Metals, and Pulsations
• The Drop during Less than 300 days of a Dusty White Dwarf's Infrared Luminosity
• The Occurrence of Wide-Orbit Planets in Binary Star Systems
• Evidence for an Anhydrous Carbonaceous Extrasolar Minor Planet
• Non-LTE models for the gaseous metal component of circumstellar discs around white dwarfs
• Warm Dust around Cool Stars: Field M Dwarfs with WISE 12 or 22 Micron Excess Emission
• A Pilot Search for Evidence of Extrasolar Earth-analog Plate Tectonics
• An Extreme-AO Search for Giant Planets around a White Dwarf --VLT/SPHERE performance on a faint target GD 50
• Complex Organic and Inorganic Compounds in Shells of Lithium-rich K Giant Stars
• A Young White Dwarf with an Infrared Excess
• Non-LTE spectral models for the gaseous debris-disk component of Ton 345
• Precision Astrometry of the Exoplanet Host Candidate GD 66
• Spectral modeling of gaseous metal disks around DAZ white dwarfs