Post-main-sequence debris from rotation-induced YORP break-up of small bodies

Abstract

Although discs of dust and gas have been observed orbiting white dwarfs, the origin of this circumstellar matter is uncertain. We hypothesize that the in-situ breakup of small bodies such as asteroids spun to fission during the giant branch phases of stellar evolution provides an important contribution to this debris. The YORP effect, which arises from radiation pressure, accelerates the spin rate of asymmetric asteroids, which can eventually shear themselves apart. This pressure is maintained and enhanced around dying stars because the outward push of an asteroid due to stellar mass loss is insignificant compared to the resulting stellar luminosity increase. Consequently, giant star radiation will destroy nearly all bodies with radii in the range 100 m - 10 km that survive their parent star's main sequence lifetime within a distance of about 7 au; smaller bodies are spun apart to their strongest, competent components. This estimate is conservative, and would increase for highly asymmetric shapes or incorporation of the inward drag due to giant star stellar wind. The resulting debris field, which could extend to thousands of au, may be perturbed by remnant planetary systems to reproduce the observed dusty and gaseous discs which accompany polluted white dwarfs.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (18)

• A gaseous metal disk around a white dwarf
• The Chemical Composition of an Extrasolar Minor Planet
• Foretellings of Ragnarök: World-engulfing Asymptotic Giants and the Inheritance of White Dwarfs
• Dynamics of rotationally fissioned asteroids: Source of observed small asteroid systems
• Hot Jupiters and Cool Stars
• Distant future of the Sun and Earth revisited
• Formation of asteroid pairs by rotational fission
• Formation of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs I: Tidal disruption of an extremely eccentric asteroid
• Eccentric Planets and Stellar Evolution as a Cause of Polluted White Dwarfs
• SDSSJ104341.53+085558.2: A second white dwarf with a gaseous debris disc
• Stochastic accretion of planetesimals onto white dwarfs: constraints on the mass distribution of accreted material from atmospheric pollution
• Disintegrating Asteroid P/2013 R3
• Evaporation and Accretion of Extrasolar Comets Following White Dwarf Kicks
• Tangential component of the YORP effect
• A 3-dimensional model of tangential YORP
• Herschel Observations of Debris Discs Orbiting Planet-hosting Subgiants
• Effect of rotational disruption on the size-frequency distribution of the Main Belt asteroid population
• Meteoroid impacts onto asteroids: a competitor for Yarkovsky and YORP

Cited by in corpus (52)

• Detectable close-in planets around white dwarfs through late unpacking
• High-speed photometry of the disintegrating planetesimals at WD1145+017: evidence for rapid dynamical evolution
• Planetary systems and real planetary nebulae from planet destruction near white dwarfs
• Hydrogen delivery onto white dwarfs from remnant exo-Oort cloud comets
• Full-lifetime simulations of multiple unequal-mass planets across all phases of stellar evolution
• A wide binary trigger for white dwarf pollution
• Numerical Simulations of Collisional Cascades at the Roche Limits of White Dwarf Stars
• The orbital evolution of asteroids, pebbles and planets from giant branch stellar radiation and winds
• Liberating exomoons in white dwarf planetary systems
• Failure modes and conditions of a cohesive, spherical body due to YORP spin-up
• The Fate of Exomoons in White Dwarf Planetary Systems
• Post main sequence evolution of icy minor planets: Implications for water retention and white dwarf pollution
• Sublimation-induced orbital perturbations of extrasolar active asteroids and comets: application to white dwarf systems
• Bayesian constraints on the origin and geology of exo-planetary material using a population of externally polluted white dwarfs
• A 3 Gyr White Dwarf with Warm Dust Discovered via the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project
• The fates of Solar system analogues with one additional distant planet
• Speeding past planets? Asteroids radiatively propelled by giant branch Yarkovsky effects
• Linking long-term planetary $N$-body simulations with periodic orbits: application to white dwarf pollution
• The lifetimes of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs
• Post-main-sequence debris from rotation-induced YORP break-up of small bodies II: multiple fissions, internal strengths and binary production
• Constraining the origin of the planetary debris surrounding ZTF J0139+5245 through rotational fission of a triaxial asteroid
• Orbital relaxation and excitation of planets tidally interacting with white dwarfs
• Effects of non-Kozai mutual inclinations on two-planet system stability through all phases of stellar evolution
• Importance of fingering convection for accreting white dwarfs in the framework of full evolutionary calculations: the case of the hydrogen-rich white dwarfs GD133 and G29-38
• Exomoons as sources of white dwarf pollution
• Secular chaos in white-dwarf planetary systems: origins of metal pollution and short-period planetary companions
• Orbit decay of 2-100 au planetary remnants around white dwarfs with no gravitational assistance from planets
• Chaotic rotation and evolution of asteroids and small planets in high-eccentricity orbits around white dwarfs
• Dynamical mass and multiplicity constraints on co-orbital bodies around stars
• Survivability of radio-loud planetary cores orbiting white dwarfs
• Metal pollution of the solar white dwarf by solar system small bodies
• On the role of resonances in polluting white dwarfs by asteroids
• Linking the formation and fate of exo-Kuiper belts within solar system analogues
• The critical binary star separation for a planetary system origin of white dwarf pollution
• The entry geometry and velocity of planetary debris into the Roche sphere of a white dwarf
• Evidence for post-nebula volatilisation in an exo-planetary body
• Constraining planet formation around 6$M_{\odot }$-8$M_{\odot }$ stars
• The smallest planetary drivers of white dwarf pollution
• The white dwarf planet WD J0914+1914 b: barricading potential rocky pollutants?
• White dwarf planetary debris dependence on physical structure distributions within asteroid belts
• Characterizing the Chemistry of Planetary Materials Around White Dwarf Stars
• The post-main-sequence fate of the HR 8799 planetary system
• The grain size survival threshold in one-planet post-main-sequence exoplanetary systems
• Generating metal-polluting debris in white dwarf planetary systems from small-impact crater ejecta
• Asteroid belt survival through stellar evolution: dependence on the stellar mass
• New simulations of accreting DA white dwarfs: inferring accretion rates from the surface contamination
• Precise determination of stellar parameters of the ZZ Ceti and DAZ white dwarf GD 133 through asteroseismology
• High-resolution resonant portraits of a single-planet white dwarf system
• Post-main sequence thermal evolution of planetesimals
• Binary asteroid scattering around white dwarfs
• Planetesimals drifting through dusty and gaseous white dwarf debris discs: Types I, II and III-like migration
• Binary asteroid dissociation and accretion around white dwarfs