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The dynamical history of the evaporating or disrupted ice giant planet around white dwarf WD J0914+1914
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Veras, Dimitri and Fuller, Jim (2020) The dynamical history of the evaporating or disrupted ice giant planet around white dwarf WD J0914+1914. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 492 (4). pp. 6059-6066. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa309
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/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.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy | ||||||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Physics | ||||||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | White dwarf stars , Celestial mechanics | ||||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | ||||||||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||||||||
| ISSN: | 1745-3933 | ||||||||||||
| Official Date: | March 2020 | ||||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 492 | ||||||||||||
| Number: | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 6059-6066 | ||||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/staa309 | ||||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||||
| Publisher Statement: | This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record Dimitri Veras, Jim Fuller, The dynamical history of the evaporating or disrupted ice giant planet around white dwarf WD J0914+1914, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, , staa309, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa309 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa309 | ||||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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