Origin of Ca II emission around polluted white dwarfs

TL;DR

This study models gas discs around polluted white dwarfs caused by asteroid disintegration, explaining observed Ca II emission asymmetries and their periodic reversals through hydrodynamic simulations and disc precession.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent model linking asteroid disruption in eccentric orbits to asymmetric Ca II emission and disc precession, matching long-term observational features.

Findings

Asymmetric Ca II emission explained by eccentric asteroid disruption.

Disc precession causes periodic reversal of emission line peaks.

Model matches observed timescales of peak reversals and asymmetries.

Abstract

Dozens of white dwarfs with anomalous metal polluted atmospheres (DZ WDs) are known to host dust and gas discs. The line profiles of the Ca II triplet emitted by the gas discs show significant asymmetry. Several minor planets have been discovered orbiting such WDs. The most challenging burden of modelling gas discs around DZ WDs is to simultaneously explain the asymmetry and metal pollution of the WD's atmosphere, while staying consistent with other aspects of the observations, like the morphology of the Ca II lines. This paper aims to construct a self-consistent model to explain the simultaneous WD pollution and Ca II line asymmetry over at least three years. In our model an asteroid disintegrates in an eccentric orbit, periodically entering below the WD's Roche limit. The resulting debris sublimates at a temperature of 1500 K, producing gas that viscously spreads to form a disc. The evolution of the discs is studied over a period of 1.2 years using two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Synthetic Ca II line profiles are calculated using the surface mass density and velocity distributions provided by the simulations, for the first time taking into account the asymmetric velocity distribution in the discs. An asteroid disintegrating in an eccentric orbit gives rise to the formation of an asymmetric disc and asymmetric Ca II triplet emission. Our model can explain the periodic reversal of the red- and blueshifted peak of the Ca II lines caused by the precession of the disc on timescales of 10.6 to 177.4 days. Our work suggests that the persistence of Ca II asymmetry over decades and its periodic change in the peaks can be explained in two scenarios: a) the asteroid disrupts on a short timescale (couple of orbits), and the gas has a low viscosity range (0.001<alpha<0.05), b) the asteroid disrupts on a timescale of a year, and the viscosity of the gas is required to be high, alpha=0.1.