Farihi, J;
Parsons, SG;
Gänsicke, BT;
(2017)
A circumbinary debris disk in a polluted white dwarf system.
Nature Astronomy
, 1
, Article 0032. 10.1038/s41550-016-0032.
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Abstract
Planetary systems commonly survive the evolution of single stars, as evidenced by terrestrial-like planetesimal debris observed orbiting and polluting the surfaces of white dwarfs 1,2. Here, we report the identification of a circumbinary dust disk surrounding a white dwarf with a substellar companion in a 2.27 h orbit. The system bears the dual hallmarks of atmospheric metal pollution and infrared excess 3,4; however, the standard (flat and opaque) disk configuration is dynamically precluded by the binary. Instead, the detected reservoir of debris must lie well beyond the Roche limit in an optically thin configuration, where erosion by stellar irradiation is relatively rapid. This finding shows that rocky planetesimal formation is robust around close binaries, even those with low mass ratios.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A circumbinary debris disk in a polluted white dwarf system |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41550-016-0032 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-016-0032 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10060409 |
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