Post-main-sequence evolution of icy minor planets. III. water retention in dwarf planets and exo-moons and implications for white dwarf pollution

TL;DR

This study investigates water retention in larger icy minor planets and dwarf planets, revealing that such bodies can retain significant water, impacting our understanding of white dwarf pollution and potential habitability.

Contribution

It extends previous research by analyzing water retention in moderate-sized exo-planetary bodies, covering a broader mass range and including effects of progenitor star mass.

Findings

Water retention is almost always greater than zero in larger minor planets.

At least 5% of the accreted material in white dwarf atmospheres is likely water.

Water retention depends on the progenitor star's mass but is less sensitive in larger bodies.

Abstract

Studies suggest that the pollution of white dwarf (WD) atmospheres arises from the accretion of minor planets, but the exact properties of polluting material, and in particular the evidence for water in some cases are not yet understood. Previous works studied the water retention in minor planets around main-sequence and evolving host stars, in order to evaluate the possibility that water survives inside minor planets around WDs. However, all of these studies focused on small, comet-sized to moonlet-sized minor planets, when the inferred mass inside the convection zones of He-dominated WDs could actually also be compatible with much more massive minor planets. In this study we therefore explore for the first time, the water retention inside exo-planetary dwarf planets, or moderate-sized moons, with radii of the order of hundreds of kilometres. We now cover nearly the entire potential mass range of minor planets. The rest of the parameter space considered in this study is identical to that of our previous study, and also includes multiple WD progenitor star masses. We find that water retention in more massive minor planets is still affected by the mass of the WD progenitor, however not as much as when small minor planets were considered. We also find that water retention is now almost always greater than zero. On average, the detected water fraction in He-dominated WD atmospheres should be at least 5\%, irrespective of the assumed initial water composition, if it came from a single accretion event of an icy dwarf planet or moon. This finding also strengthens the possibility of WD habitability. To finalize our previous and current findings, we provide a code which may be freely used as a service to the community. The code calculates ice and water retention by interpolation, spanning the full mass range of both minor planets and their host stars.