Excess Infrared Radiation from a Massive DAZ White Dwarf: GD362 - a Debris Disk?

We report the discovery of excess K-band radiation from a massive DAZ white dwarf star, GD362. Combining infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations, we show that the excess radiation cannot be explained by a stellar or substellar companion, and is likely to be caused by a debris disk. This...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2005-09
Main Authors: Kilic, Mukremin, Ted von Hippel, Leggett, S K, Winget, D E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cosmic dust
Debris
Deposition
Infrared photometry
Infrared radiation
Model testing
Photometry
White dwarf stars
White dwarfs
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report the discovery of excess K-band radiation from a massive DAZ white dwarf star, GD362. Combining infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations, we show that the excess radiation cannot be explained by a stellar or substellar companion, and is likely to be caused by a debris disk. This would be only the second such system known, discovered 18 years after G29-38, the only single white dwarf currently known to be orbited by circumstellar dust. Both of these systems favor a model with accretion from a surrounding debris disk to explain the metal abundances observed in DAZ white dwarfs. Nevertheless, observations of more DAZs in the mid-infrared are required to test if this model can explain all DAZs.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0509188