The lifetimes of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs

Abstract

The lifetime of a planetary disc which orbits a white dwarf represents a crucial input parameter into evolutionary models of that system. Here we apply a purely analytical formalism to estimate lifetimes of the debris phase of these discs, before they are ground down into dust or are subject to sublimation from the white dwarf. We compute maximum lifetimes for three different types of white dwarf discs, formed from (i) radiative YORP breakup of exo-asteroids along the giant branch phases at 2 − 100 au, (ii) radiation-less spin-up disruption of these minor planets at ∼ 1.5 − 4.5R ⊙ , and (iii) tidal disruption of minor or major planets within about 1.3R ⊙ . We display these maximum lifetimes as a function of disc mass and extent, constituent planetesimal properties, and representative orbital excitations of eccentricity and inclination. We find that YORP discs with masses up to 10 24 kg live long enough to provide a reservoir of surviving cm-sized pebbles and m-to km-sized boulders that can be perturbed intact to white dwarfs with cooling ages of up to 10 Gyr. Debris discs formed from the spin or tidal disruption of these minor planets or major planets can survive in a steady state for up to respectively 1 Myr or 0.01 Myr, although most tidal discs would leave a steady state within about 1 yr. Our results illustrate that dust-less planetesimal transit detections are plausible, and would provide particularly robust evolutionary constraints. Our formalism can easily be adapted to individual systems and future discoveries.