47 citations · 172 across the 19 of their papers we have counts for
11 papers · 1 filter
Aerosols and hydrocarbons in the atmosphere of a white dwarf planet
Ryan J. MacDonald, Christopher E. O'Connor, Victoria A. Boehm +15
Most stars, including our Sun, will one day evolve into red giants and, subsequently, white dwarfs. Several planet candidates have recently been identified orbiting white dwarfs, d…
Intruder Alert: Breaking Resonant Chains with Planetesimal Flybys
Jiaru Li, Christopher E. O'Connor, Frederic A. Rasio
The orbital architectures of compact exoplanet systems record their complicated dynamical histories. Recent research supports the ``breaking-the-chains'' hypothesis, which proposes…
Thermal Emission and Confirmation of the Frigid White Dwarf Exoplanet WD 1856+534b
Mary Anne Limbach, Andrew Vanderburg, Ryan J. MacDonald +12
We report the detection of thermal emission from and confirm the planetary nature of WD 1856+534b, the first transiting planet known to orbit a white dwarf star. Observations with…
Metal pollution in Sun-like stars from destruction of ultra-short-period planets
Christopher E. O'Connor, Dong Lai
Chemical evidence indicates that an appreciable fraction of Sun-like stars have engulfed rocky planets during their main-sequence lifetimes. We investigate whether the tidal evolut…
On the pollution of white dwarfs by exo-Oort cloud comets
Christopher E. O'Connor, Dong Lai, Darryl Z. Seligman
A large fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) have metal-polluted atmospheres, which are produced by accreting material from remnant planetary systems. The composition of the accreted deb…
Giant planet engulfment by evolved giant stars: light curves, asteroseismology, and survivability
Christopher E. O'Connor, Lars Bildsten, Matteo Cantiello +1
About ten percent of Sun-like (-) stars will engulf a - planet as they expand during the red giant branch (RGB) or asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phas…
Secular chaos in white-dwarf planetary systems: origins of metal pollution and short-period planetary companions
Christopher E. O'Connor, Jean Teyssandier, Dong Lai
Secular oscillations in multi-planet systems can drive chaotic evolution of a small inner body through non-linear resonant perturbations. This "secular chaos" readily pushes the in…
Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectroscopy of the Grazing Planet Candidate WD 1856+534 b
Siyi Xu, Hannah Diamond-Lowe, Ryan J. MacDonald +12
WD 1856+534 b is a Jupiter-sized, cool giant planet candidate transiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534. Here, we report an optical transmission spectrum of WD 1856+534 b obtained fro…
Enhanced Lidov-Kozai migration and the formation of the transiting giant planet WD1856+534b
Christopher E. O'Connor, Bin Liu, Dong Lai
We investigate the possible origin of the transiting giant planet WD1856+534b, the first strong exoplanet candidate orbiting a white dwarf, through high-eccentricity migration (HEM…
High-eccentricity migration of planetesimals around polluted white dwarfs
Christopher E. O'Connor, Dong Lai
Several white dwarfs with atmospheric metal pollution have been found to host small planetary bodies (planetesimals) orbiting near the tidal disruption radius. We study the physica…
Constraining Planetary Migration and Tidal Dissipation with Coeval Hot Jupiters
Christopher E. O'Connor, Bradley M. S. Hansen
We investigate the constraints on the formation of, and tidal dissipation processes in, hot Jupiters (HJs) that can be inferred based on reliable knowledge of the age of a system o…