Warm Debris Disks Candidates in Transiting Planets Systems

TL;DR

This study identifies 13 candidate stars with infrared excesses potentially indicating warm debris disks, which could be influenced by orbiting planets, thereby nearly doubling known systems of this kind.

Contribution

It combines Kepler transiting planet data with WISE infrared observations to find new warm debris disk candidates around old stars.

Findings

13 stars show infrared excesses at 12 and/or 22 microns.

The excesses are likely due to debris disks, pending longer wavelength confirmation.

Disk radii are comparable to planetary semi-major axes, implying planetary stirring.

Abstract

We have bandmerged candidate transiting planetary systems (from the Kepler satellite) and confirmed transiting planetary systems (from the literature) with the recent Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) preliminary release catalog. We have found 13 stars showing infrared excesses at either 12 and/or 22 microns. Without longer wavelength observations it is not possible to conclusively determine the nature of the excesses, although we argue that they are likely due to debris disks around the stars. If confirmed, our sample ~ doubles the number of currently known warm excess disks around old main sequence stars. The ratios between the measured fluxes and the stellar photospheres are generally larger than expected for Gyr-old stars, such as these planetary hosts. Assuming temperature limits for the dust and emission from large dust particles, we derive estimates for the disk radii. These values are comparable to the planet's semi-major axis, suggesting that the planets may be stirring the planetesimals in the system.