Detecting water ice and vapor disks originating from icy planetary bodies around white dwarfs with future PRIMA observations
arXiv:2509.01697 · doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031607
Abstract
Observations of atmospheres of polluted white dwarfs provide insights into the elemental composition of accreted exoplanets and exo-asteroids. However, they poorly constrain the abundance of ice-forming volatile elements due to the properties of white dwarf atmospheres. Instead of focusing solely on atmospheric observations, we propose observing circumstellar water ice and vapor disks formed by the tidal disruption of icy bodies using the future PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) far-infrared enhanced survey spectrometer. PRIMA has the potential to measure volatile abundances in colder circumstellar regions inaccessible by shorter-wavelength observations. We employ a simple disk emission model with disk parameter ranges inferred from previous observations and disk evolution simulations. We find the 44-m water ice feature promising for observing icy disks. For white dwarfs within 60 pc, 1-hour PRIMA observations could detect water ice with a mass above g, representing a potential lower limit of circumstellar disk mass. Water vapor rotational lines also abundantly emerge within the PRIMA wavelength coverage, and 5-hour observations for white dwarfs within 20 pc could detect water vapor with a total disk mass g, depending on the H/HO ratio. 19 metal polluted white dwarfs within 20 pc and 210 within 60 pc could be optimal targets for water vapor and ice observations, respectively.
arXiv comment19 pages, 7 figures, published in JATIS. This paper is part of the JATIS special issue focused on the PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) probe mission concept. The issue is edited by Matt Griffin and Naseem Rangwala (JATIS VOL. 11, NO. 3 | July 2025)
References in corpus (47)
- A computer program for fast non-LTE analysis of interstellar line spectra
- An atomic and molecular database for analysis of submillimetre line observations
- Planetary Radii across Five Orders of Magnitude in Mass and Stellar Insolation: Application to Transits
- Mass-Radius Relationships for Solid Exoplanets
- A Tidally-Disrupted Asteroid Around the White Dwarf G29-38
- Growth Model Interpretation of Planet Size Distribution
- Are There Unstable Planetary Systems Around White Dwarfs?
- The frequency of planetary debris around young white dwarfs
- A gaseous metal disk around a white dwarf
- Ancient planetary systems are orbiting a large fraction of white dwarf stars
- Can we constrain interior structure of rocky exoplanets from mass and radius measurements?
- A Framework for Quantifying the Degeneracies of Exoplanet Interior Compositions
- CASSIS: The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/IRS Sources
- Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri and Herbig Ae Disks: Grain Mineralogy, Parameter Dependences, and Comparison with ISO LWS Observations
- A Detailed Model Grid for Solid Planets from 0.1 through 100 Earth Masses
- Possible Disintegrating Short-Period Super-Mercury Orbiting KIC 12557548
- Dynamical effects of stellar mass loss on a Kuiper-like belt
- Formation of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs I: Tidal disruption of an extremely eccentric asteroid
- Evidence for Water in the Rocky Debris of a Disrupted Extrasolar Minor Planet
- Externally-polluted white dwarfs with dust disks
- Molecular abundances and C/O ratios in chemically evolving planet-forming disk midplanes
- The K2-ESPRINT Project. I. Discovery of the Disintegrating Rocky Planet K2-22b with a Cometary Head and Leading Tail
- KOI-2700b - A Planet Candidate With Dusty Effluents on a 22-Hour Orbit
- Six White Dwarfs with Circumstellar Silicates
- The frequency and infrared brightness of circumstellar discs at white dwarfs
- Infrared Emission from the Dusty Disk Orbiting GD 362, An Externally-Polluted White Dwarf
- Polluted White Dwarfs: Constraints on the Origin and Geology of Exoplanetary Material
- Unstable low-mass planetary systems as drivers of white dwarf pollution
- Doppler-imaging of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J122859.93+104032.9
- DB white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10 and 12
- The Dust cloud around the White Dwarf G 29-38. 2. Spectrum from 5-40 microns and mid-infrared variability
- From stellar nebula to planetesimals
- Tidal disruption of planetary bodies by white dwarfs I: A hybrid SPH-analytical approach
- Trace hydrogen in helium atmosphere white dwarfs as a possible signature of water accretion
- A Dusty Component to the Gaseous Debris Disk around the White Dwarf SDSS J1228+1040
- Tidal disruption of planetary bodies by white dwarfs II: Debris disc structure and ejected interstellar asteroids
- The Solar Neighborhood. XXXIX. Parallax Results from the CTIOPI and NOFS Programs: 50 New Members of the 25 Parsec White Dwarf Sample
- A road-map to white dwarf pollution: Tidal disruption, eccentric grind-down, and dust accretion
- Carbonates in space - The challenge of low temperature data
- Accretion of tidally disrupted asteroids onto white dwarfs: direct accretion versus disk processing
- PEWDD: A database of white dwarfs enriched by exo-planetary material
- Inferring the Composition of Disintegrating Planet Interiors from Dust Tails with Future James Webb Space Telescope Observations
- The Geometry of the G29-38 White Dwarf Dust Disk from Radiative Transfer Modeling
- The gaseous debris disk of the white dwarf SDSS J1228+1040. HST/COS search for far-ultraviolet signatures
- Modeling the Evolution of Silicate/Volatile Accretion Discs around White Dwarfs
- PRIMA General Observer Science Book
- Constraining the Bulk Composition of Disintegrating Exoplanets Using Combined Transmission Spectra from JWST and SPICA