We investigate whether the tentative correlation between planets and debris discs which has been previously identified can be confirmed at high significance. We compile a sample of 201 stars with known planets and existing far infrared observations. The sample is larger than those studied previously since we include targets from an unpublished Herschel survey of planet hosts. We use spectral energy distribution modelling to characterise Kuiper belt analogue debris discs within the sample, then compare the properties of the discs against a control sample of 294 stars without known planets. Survival analysis suggests that there is a significant ($p\sim 0.002$) difference between the disc fractional luminosity distributions of the two samples. However, this is largely a result of the fact that the control sample contains a higher proportion of close binaries and of later-type stars; both of these factors are known to reduce disc detection rates. Considering only Sun-like stars without close binary companions in each sample greatly reduces the significance of the difference ($p\sim 0.3$). We also find no evidence for a difference in the disc fractional luminosities of stars hosting planets more or less massive than Saturn ($p\sim 0.9$). Finally, we find that the planet hosts have cooler discs than the control stars, but this is likely a detection bias, since the warmest discs in the control sample are also the faintest, and would thus be undetectable around the more distant planet hosts. Considering only discs in each sample that could have been detected around a typical planet host, we find $p\sim 0.07$ for the temperatures.
We know little about the outermost exoplanets in planetary systems, because our detection methods are insensitive to moderate-mass planets on wide orbits. However, debris discs can probe the outer-planet population, because dynamical modelling of observed discs can reveal properties of perturbing planets. We use four sculpting and stirring arguments to infer planet properties in 178 debris-disc systems from the ISPY, LEECH and LIStEN planet-hunting surveys. Similar analyses are often conducted for individual discs, but we consider a large sample in a consistent manner. We aim to predict the po…
The similar orbital distances and detection rates of debris disks and the prominent rings observed in protoplanetary disks suggest a potential connection between these structures. We explore this connection with new calculations that follow the evolution of rings of pebbles and planetesimals as they grow into planets and generate dusty debris. Depending on the initial solid mass and planetesimal formation efficiency, the calculations predict diverse outcomes for the resulting planet masses and accompanying debris signature. When compared with debris disk incidence rates as a function of lumino…
The gap between two component debris disks is often taken to be carved by intervening planets scattering away the remnant planetesimals. We employ N-body simulations to determine how the time needed to clear the gap depends on the location of the gap and the mass of the planets. We invert this relation, and provide an equation for the minimum planet mass, and another for the expected number of such planets, that must be present to produce an observed gap for a star of a given age. We show how this can be combined with upper limits on the planetary system from direct imaging non-detections (suc…
Substructure evolution from protoplanetary to debris disks driven by mutually gravitating planetesimals and implications on Kepler resonances and free-floating planets
California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；University of Hawai’i（夏威夷大学）
Debris belts on the periphery of planetary systems, encompassing the region occupied by planetary orbits, are massive analogues of the Solar system's Kuiper belt. They are detected by thermal emission of dust released in collisions amongst directly unobservable larger bodies that carry most of the debris disc mass. We estimate the total mass of the discs by extrapolating up the mass of emitting dust with the help of collisional cascade models. The resulting mass of bright debris discs appears to be unrealistically large, exceeding the mass of solids available in the systems at the preceding pr…
Observations of debris disks, the products of the collisional evolution of rocky planetesimals, can be used to trace planetary activity across a wide range of stellar types. The most common end points of stellar evolution are no exception as debris disks have been observed around several dozen white dwarf stars. But instead of planetary formation, post-main-sequence debris disks are a signpost of planetary destruction, resulting in compact debris disks from the tidal disruption of remnant planetesimals. In this work, we present the discovery of five new debris disks around white dwarf stars wi…
The long-term dynamics of planetesimals in debris discs in models with parameters of binary star systems Kepler-16, Kepler-34 and Kepler-35 with planets is investigated. Our calculations have shown the formation of a stable coorbital with the planet ring is possible for Kepler-16 and Kepler-35 systems. In Kepler-34 system, significant eccentricities of the orbits of the binary and planets can to prevent the formation of such a structure. Detection circumbinary annular structures in observations of systems binary stars can be evidence of the existence of planets, retaining coorbital rings from …
Millimetre continuum observations of debris discs can provide insights into the physical and dynamical properties of the unseen planetesimals that these discs host. The material properties and collisional models of planetesimals leave their signature on the grain size distribution, which can be traced through the millimetre spectral index. We present 8.8 mm observations of the debris discs HD 48370, CPD 72 2713, HD 131488, and HD 32297 using the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) as part of the PLanetesimals Around TYpicalPre-main seqUence Stars (PLATYPUS) survey. We detect all four tar…
Our knowledge of white dwarf planetary systems predominately arises from the region within a few Solar radii of the white dwarfs, where minor planets break up, form rings and discs, and accrete onto the star. The entry location, angle and speed into this Roche sphere has rarely been explored but crucially determines the initial geometry of the debris, accretion rates onto the photosphere, and ultimately the composition of the minor planet. Here we evolve a total of over 10^5 asteroids with single-planet N-body simulations across the giant branch and white dwarf stellar evolution phases to quan…
We report nine years of optical spectroscopy of the metal-polluted white dwarf SDSS J104341.53+085558.2, which presents morphological variations of the line profiles of the 8600 Å Ca II triplet emission from the gaseous component of its debris disc. Similar changes in the shape of the Ca II triplet have also been observed in two other systems that host a gaseous disc, and are likely related to the same mechanism. We report the Mg, Si, and Ca abundances of the debris detected in the photosphere of SDSS J1043+0855, place upper limits on O and Fe, and derive an accretion rate of (2.5 - 12)x$10^8$…
Dwarf stars with debris discs and planets appear to be excellent laboratories to study the core accretion theory of planets formation. These systems are however, insufficiently studied. In this paper we present the main metallicity and lithium abundance properties of these stars together with stars with only debris discs and stars with only planets. Stars without detected planets nor discs are also considered. The analysed sample is formed by main-sequence FGK field single stars. Apart from the basic stellar parameters, we include the use of dusty discs masses. The main results show for the fi…
This paper shows that the eccentric debris rings seen around the stars Fomalhaut and HD 202628 are narrower than expected in the standard eccentric planet perturbation scenario (sometimes referred to as "pericenter glow"). The standard scenario posits an initially circular and narrow belt of planetesimals at semi-major axis $a$, whose eccentricity is increased to $e_f$ after the gas disc has dispersed by secular perturbations from an eccentric planet, resulting in a belt of width $2ae_f$. In a minor modification of this scenario, narrower belts can arise if the planetesimals are initially ecce…
WD 0145+234 is a white dwarf that is accreting metals from a circumstellar disc of planetary material. It has exhibited a substantial and sustained increase in 3-5 micron flux since 2018. Follow-up Spitzer photometry reveals that emission from the disc had begun to decrease by late 2019. Stochastic brightening events superimposed on the decline in brightness suggest the liberation of dust during collisional evolution of the circumstellar solids. A simple model is used to show that the observations are indeed consistent with ongoing collisions. Rare emission lines from circumstellar gas have be…
Many white dwarf stars show signs of having accreted smaller bodies, implying that they may host planetary systems. A small number of these systems contain gaseous debris discs, visible through emission lines. We report a stable 123.4min periodic variation in the strength and shape of the CaII emission line profiles originating from the debris disc around the white dwarf SDSSJ122859.93+104032.9. We interpret this short-period signal as the signature of a solid body held together by its internal strength.
Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence must have been produced during the white dwarf phase. This picture is strengthened by the signature of material falling onto the pristine stellar surfaces; disks are always detected together with atmospheric heavy elements. The physical link between this debris and the white dwarf host abundances enables unique insight into the bulk chemistry of extrasolar pl…
Extreme Debris Disks: Insights into Violent Collisions in Planet Formation and Destruction
Space Science Institute（空间科学研究所）；Konkoly Observatory, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences（孔科利天文台，HUN-REN 天文学与地球科学研究中心）；CSFK（匈牙利科学院天文研究所）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）
When considering gaps in debris discs, a typical approach is to invoke clearing by an unseen planet within the gap, and derive the planet mass using Wisdom overlap or Hill radius arguments. However, this approach can be invalid if the disc is massive, because this clearing would also cause planet migration. This could result in a calculated planet mass that is incompatible with the inferred disc mass, because the predicted planet would in reality be too small to carve the gap without significant migration. We investigate the gap that a single embedded planet would carve in a massive debris dis…
HD 113337 and HD 38529 host pairs of giant planets, a debris disc, and wide M-type stellar companions. We measure the disc orientation with resolved images from Herschel and constrain the three-dimensional orbits of the outer planets with Gaia DR2 and Hipparcos astrometry. Resolved disc modelling leaves degeneracy in the disc orientation, so we derive four separate planet-disc mutual inclination ($ΔI$) solutions. The most aligned solutions give $ΔI=17-32°$ for HD 113337 and $ΔI=21-45°$ for HD 38529 (both 1$σ$). In both systems, there is a small probability (<0.3 per cent) that the planet and d…
The lifetime of a planetary disc which orbits a white dwarf represents a crucial input parameter into evolutionary models of that system. Here we apply a purely analytical formalism to estimate lifetimes of the debris phase of these discs, before they are ground down into dust or are subject to sublimation from the white dwarf. We compute maximum lifetimes for three different types of white dwarf discs, formed from (i) radiative YORP breakup of exo-asteroids along the giant branch phases at 2-100 au, (ii) radiation-less spin-up disruption of these minor planets at $\sim 1.5-4.5R_{\odot}$, and …
The formation of planets like Earth is expected to conclude with a series of late-stage giant impacts that generate warm dusty debris, the most anticipated visible signpost of terrestrial planet formation in progress. While there is now evidence that Earth-sized terrestrial planets orbit a significant fraction of solar-type stars, the anticipated dusty debris signature of their formation is rarely detected. Here we discuss several ways in which our current ideas about terrestrial planet formation imply transport mechanisms capable of erasing the anticipated debris signature. A tenuous gas disk…
We present 1.3 millimeter observations of the debris disk surrounding the HR 8799 multi-planet system from the Submillimeter Array to complement archival ALMA observations that spatially filtered away the bulk of the emission. The image morphology at $3.8$ arcsecond (150 AU) resolution indicates an optically thin circumstellar belt, which we associate with a population of dust-producing planetesimals within the debris disk. The interferometric visibilities are fit well by an axisymmetric radial power-law model characterized by a broad width, $ΔR/R\gtrsim 1$. The belt inclination and orientatio…
Planetesimals form in gas-rich protoplanetary disks around young stars. However, protoplanetary disks fade in about 10 Myr. The planetesimals (and also many of the planets) left behind are too dim to study directly. Fortunately, collisions between planetesimals produce dusty debris disks. These debris disks trace the processes of terrestrial planet formation for 100 Myr and of exoplanetary system evolution out to 10 Gyr. This chapter begins with a summary of planetesimal formation as a prelude to the epoch of planetesimal destruction. Our review of debris disks covers the key issues, including…
This review chapter for young researchers presents our current understanding of debris discs. It introduces some of their basic properties and observables, and describes how we think they form and collisionally evolve. Special emphasis is dedicated to ALMA observations of the dust and gas, which constrains the distribution of planetesimals, their volatile composition, and potential volatile delivery to planetary atmospheres.
Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable information on circumstellar disk evolution and the outcome of planet formation. The debris disk population can be explained by the steady collisional erosion of planetesimal belts; population models constrain where (10-100au) and in what quantity (>1Mearth) planetesimals (>10km in size) typically form in protoplanetary disks. Gas is now seen long into the debris disk phase. Some o…
Recent observations of debris discs, believed to be made up of remnant planetesimals, brought a number of surprises. Debris disc presence does not correlate with the host star's metallicity, and may anti-correlate with the presence of gas giant planets. These observations contradict both assumptions and predictions of the highly successful Core Accretion model of planet formation. Here we explore predictions of the alternative Tidal Downsizing (TD) scenario of planet formation. In TD, small planets and planetesimal debris is made only when gas fragments, predecessors of giant planets, are tida…
Giant impacts refer to collisions between two objects each of which is massive enough to be considered at least a planetary embryo. The putative collision suffered by the proto-Earth that created the Moon is a prime example, though most Solar System bodies bear signatures of such collisions. Current planet formation models predict that an epoch of giant impacts may be inevitable, and observations of debris around other stars are providing mounting evidence that giant impacts feature in the evolution of many planetary systems. This chapter reviews giant impacts, focussing on what we can learn a…
