Seven white dwarfs with circumstellar gas discs II: Tracing the composition of exoplanetary building blocks

TL;DR

This study analyzes the composition of planetary debris accreted onto seven white dwarfs with circumstellar discs, revealing diverse planetary building blocks, including water-rich, rocky, and differentiated core-mantle material, highlighting complex planetary evolution processes.

Contribution

It provides detailed compositional analysis of planetary debris around white dwarfs, demonstrating the importance of differentiation and collisional history in planetary system evolution.

Findings

Detection of diverse planetary compositions, including water-rich and core-rich material.

Evidence of differentiation and collisional processes shaping planetary debris.

Less than 1% of white dwarfs show both gas and dust, with tentative links between gas presence and water-rich material.

Abstract

This second paper presents an in-depth analysis of the composition of the planetary material that has been accreted onto seven white dwarfs with circumstellar dust and gas emission discs with abundances reported in Paper I. The white dwarfs are accreting planetary bodies with a wide range of oxygen, carbon, and sulfur volatile contents, including one white dwarf that shows the most enhanced sulfur abundance seen to date. Three white dwarfs show tentative evidence (2-3$\sigma$) of accreting oxygen-rich material, potentially from water-rich bodies, whilst two others are accreting dry, rocky material. One white dwarf is accreting a mantle-rich fragment of a larger differentiated body, whilst two white dwarfs show an enhancement in their iron abundance and could be accreting core-rich fragments. Whilst most planetary material accreted by white dwarfs display chondritic or bulk Earth-like compositions, these observations demonstrate that core-mantle differentiation, disruptive collisions, and the accretion of core-mantle differentiated material are important. Less than one percent of polluted white dwarfs host both observable circumstellar gas and dust. It is unknown whether these systems are experiencing an early phase in the disruption and accretion of planetary bodies, or alternatively if they are accreting larger planetary bodies. From this work there is no substantial evidence for significant differences in the accreted refractory abundance ratios for those white dwarfs with or without circumstellar gas, but there is tentative evidence for those with circumstellar gas discs to be accreting more water rich material which may suggest that volatiles accrete earlier in a gas-rich phase.