The frequency and infrared brightness of circumstellar discs at white dwarfs

TL;DR

This study uses Spitzer IRAC data to determine the frequency of infrared-bright circumstellar discs around white dwarfs, revealing that many more white dwarfs likely host undetected discs, which are key to understanding evolved planetary systems.

Contribution

It provides the first unbiased infrared survey of a well-defined white dwarf sample, establishing the true occurrence rate of circumstellar dust and exploring disc evolution over time.

Findings

3.7% of surveyed white dwarfs have detectable infrared discs

27% show photospheric metals indicating ongoing accretion

Most discs likely remain undetected in infrared due to small surface area

Abstract

White dwarfs whose atmospheres are polluted by terrestrial-like planetary debris have become a powerful and unique tool to study evolved planetary systems. This paper presents results for an unbiased Spitzer IRAC search for circumstellar dust orbiting a homogeneous and well-defined sample of 134 single white dwarfs. The stars were selected without regard to atmospheric metal content but were chosen to have 1) hydrogen rich atmospheres, 2) 17 000 K < T_eff < 25 000 K and correspondingly young post main-sequence ages of 15-270Myr, and 3) sufficient far-ultraviolet brightness for a corresponding Hubble Space Telescope COS Snapshot. Five white dwarfs were found to host an infrared bright dust disc, three previously known, and two reported here for the first time, yielding a nominal 3.7% of white dwarfs in this post-main sequence age range with detectable circumstellar dust. Remarkably, complementary HST observations indicate that a fraction of 27% show metals in their photosphere that can only be explained with ongoing accretion from circumstellar material, indicating that nearly 90% of discs escape detection in the infrared, likely due to small emitting surface area. This paper also presents the distribution of disc fractional luminosity as a function of cooling age for all known dusty white dwarfs, suggesting possible disc evolution scenarios and indicating an undetected population of circumstellar discs.