The Link Between Dusty White Dwarfs and Planets
John Debes
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The direct imaging of planets around white dwarfs would provide a
unique window into how planetary systems evolve during post main
sequence evolution as well as a population of planets with reasonably
well known ages. Given the technical challenges of detecting such
planets, focused surveys need to be conducted. Fortunately, a
significant fraction of white dwarfs might bear the markers of
planetary systems -- either through polluted white dwarfs that show
absorption lines due to metals (types DAZ, DBZ, and DZ) or through IR
excesses due to compact dusty disks. Physical mechanisms for
creating these observable phenomena are scarce as are the statistics
necessary to draw firm constraints on any model. I will present my
new theoretical framework for creating dusty and polluted white
dwarfs from relic planetary systems and show what new strides can be
accomplished observationally with the work I've been doing on the
NASA WISE IR Excesses around Degenerates (WIRED) Survey.
Date: | Jeudi, le 18 novembre 2010 |
Heure: | 11:30 |
Lieu: | Université de Montréal |
| Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, local D-460 |
Contact: | Patrick Dufour |
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