Probing DAZ White Dwarfs for Warm and Cool Dust

Details Probing DAZ White Dwarfs for Warm and Cool Dust Probing DAZ White Dwarfs for Warm and Cool Dust

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop..275j&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #275

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose IRAC and MIPS 24 micron imaging for a sample of nearby very metal-rich white dwarfs in order to detect excess emission due to relatively cool dust. The main science goal is to further explore the connection between debris disks orbiting white dwarfs with photospheric metals by probing their circumstellar environments, with unprecedented sensitivity, for cool dust. Our target sample includes both hydrogen-rich degenerates with metals (spectral type DAZ). Recent surveys, including ongoing work by our team, have discovered a few white dwarfs with evidence for warm dust via excess emission in the 2-8 micron region and there are reasons why we might expect that cooler dust awaits detection at some white dwarfs. The outstanding problem of persistent heavy metal abundances in white dwarfs is still far from being completely understood, and MIPS 24 micron measurements should go a long way to help address remaining questions by probing a large range of potential dust temperatures and, therefore, spatial distributions. We will also image with IRAC many white dwarfs which have not been probed at these shorter wavelengths. Some of the issues our science will address include: 1) the frequency of extrasolar planetary, cometary, and asteroidal systems around white dwarfs; 2) the long term evolution of such systems post main sequence; 3) the general origin of metals in white dwarfs but especially the frequency of debris disks among cool hydrogen-rich degenerates with heavy elements; 4) the temperature, origin, and spatial distribution of any material in white dwarf debris disks.

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