paper

The dynamical history of the evaporating or disrupted ice giant planet around white dwarf WD J0914+1914

arXiv:1912.02199 · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa309

Abstract

Robust evidence of an ice giant planet shedding its atmosphere around the white dwarf WD J0914+1914 represents a milestone in exoplanetary science, allowing us to finally supplement our knowledge of white dwarf metal pollution, debris discs and minor planets with the presence of a major planet. Here, we discuss the possible dynamical origins of this planet, WD J0914+1914 b. The very young cooling age of the host white dwarf (13 Myr) combined with the currently estimated planet-star separation of about 0.07 au imposes particularly intriguing and restrictive coupled constraints on its current orbit and its tidal dissipation characteristics. The planet must have been scattered from a distance of at least a few au to its current location, requiring the current or former presence of at least one more major planet in the system in the absence of a hidden binary companion. We show that WD J0914+1914 b could not have subsequently shrunk its orbit through chaotic f-mode tidal excitation (characteristic of such highly eccentric orbits) unless the planet was or is highly inflated and possibly had partially thermally self-disrupted from mode-based energy release. We also demonstrate that if the planet is currently assumed to reside on a near-circular orbit at 0.07 au, then non-chaotic equilibrium tides impose unrealistic values for the planet's tidal quality factor. We conclude that WD~J0914+1914~b either (i) actually resides interior to 0.07 au, (ii) resembles a disrupted "Super-Puff" whose remains reside on a circular orbit, or (iii) resembles a larger or denser ice giant on a currently eccentric orbit. Distinguishing these three possibilities strongly motivates follow-up observations.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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