Post main sequence evolution of icy minor planets II: water retention and white dwarf pollution around massive progenitor stars

Abstract

Most studies suggest the pollution of white dwarf (WD) atmospheres arises from accretion of minor planets, but the exact properties of polluting material, and in particular the evidence for water in some cases are not yet understood. Here we study the water retention of small icy bodies in exo-solar planetary systems, as their respective host stars evolve through and off the main sequence and eventually become WDs. We explore for the first time a wide range of star masses and metallicities. We find that the mass of the WD progenitor star is of crucial importance for the retention of water, while its metallicity is relatively unimportant. We predict that minor planets around lower-mass WD progenitors would retain more water in general, and would do so at closer distances from the WD, compared with high-mass progenitors. The dependence of water retention on progenitor mass and other parameters has direct implications for the origin of observed WD pollution, and we discuss how our results and predictions might be tested in the future as more observations of WDs with long cooling-ages become available.

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Tidal disruption of planetary bodies by white dwarfs I: A hybrid SPH-analytical approach
• Numerical Simulations of Gaseous Disks Generated from Collisional Cascades at the Roche Limits of White Dwarf Stars
• White dwarf pollution by hydrated planetary remnants: Hydrogen and Metals in WD J204713.76-125908.9
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• Post-main-sequence evolution of icy minor planets. III. water retention in dwarf planets and exo-moons and implications for white dwarf pollution
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• The critical binary star separation for a planetary system origin of white dwarf pollution
• Asynchronous accretion can mimic diverse white dwarf pollutants II: water content
• White dwarf planetary debris dependence on physical structure distributions within asteroid belts
• Post-main sequence thermal evolution of planetesimals
• White dwarf systems: exoplanets and debris disks
• White dwarf magnetospheres: Shielding volatile content of icy objects and implications for volatile pollution scarcity