Modeling the Evolution of Silicate/Volatile Accretion Discs around White Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study models silicate and volatile accretion discs around white dwarfs, revealing that silicate vapor re-condensation prevents runaway accretion, while volatile gases can enhance accretion rates beyond Poynting-Robertson limits, explaining observed high accretion rates.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive 1D advection/diffusion model including sublimation and re-condensation, clarifying the conditions for high accretion rates and the role of volatiles in white dwarf debris discs.

Findings

Re-condensation limits silicate accretion to Poynting-Robertson rates.

Volatile gases can increase accretion rates beyond PR limits.

Refractory-rich accretion occurs with low initial volatile fractions.

Abstract

A growing number of debris discs have been detected around metal-polluted white dwarfs. They are thought to be originated from tidally disrupted exoplanetary bodies and responsible for metal accretion onto host WDs. To explain (1) the observationally inferred accretion rate higher than that induced by Poynting-Robertson drag, $\dot{M}_{\rm PR}$, and (2) refractory-rich photosphere composition indicating the accretion of terrestrial rocky materials, previous studies proposed runaway accretion of silicate particles due to gas drag by the increasing silicate vapor produced by the sublimation of the particles. Because re-condensation of the vapor diffused beyond the sublimation line was neglected, we revisit this problem by one-dimensional advection/diffusion simulation that consistently incorporates silicate sublimation/condensation and back-reaction to particle drift due to gas drag in the solid-rich disc. We find that the silicate vapor density in the region overlapping the solid particles follows the saturating vapor pressure and that no runaway accretion occurs if the re-condensation is included. This always limits the accretion rate from mono-compositional silicate discs to $\dot{M}_{\rm PR}$ in the equilibrium state. Alternatively, by performing additional simulations that couple the volatile gas (e.g., water vapor), we demonstrate that the volatile gas enhances the silicate accretion to $>\dot{M}_{\rm PR}$ through gas drag. The refractory-rich accretion is simultaneously reproduced when the initial volatile fraction of disc is $\lesssim 10$ wt\% because of the suppression of volatile accretion due to the efficient back-reaction of solid to gas. The discs originating from C-type asteroid analogs might be a possible clue to the high-$\dot{M}$ puzzle.