Signposts of Planetary Systems around Evolved Stars: A New Perspective on Extrasolar Planets

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This is an award to study asteroid belts and debris disks orbiting white dwarfs in order to better understand the general nature of planetary systems. White dwarfs are very dense stellar remnants produced at the end of a low-mass star's life, and composed mainly of electron-degenerate matter. Any debris disk or planetary system orbiting a white dwarf is thought to have survived from an earlier disk that formed around the progenitor star. Existing theoretical understanding will be applied to these new unique circumstances to learn more about the properties of planetary systems around evolved intermediate-mass stars. The PI and his team will model the fragmentation and destruction of asteroid bodies within the debris disks, and will derive predicted observational signatures that can be compared to existing observations of white dwarf debris disks. The PI will train and mentor a graduate student in research, involve undergraduate students in research, and develop movies for the general public illustrating the physics of planets around white dwarfs.Global time-dependent models for the evolution of both gaseous and solid debris disks around white dwarfs will be developed and compared with observations. The team will also explore the origin of eccentric distortions in the disks of metallic gas, and the condensation of metallic gas onto the solid particles. They will also explore possible role of electromagnetic effects on the disk evolution.