On survival of dust grains in the sublimation zone of cold white dwarfs

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe consider a mechanism for the deposition of dust grains on to the surface of cold white dwarfs (WDs). Calculations show that grains can fall on to a cold WD directly, without reaching the phase of complete evaporation, if the parent bodies and the grains orbit on elongated, close to parabolic, orbits. To this end, we calculated the dynamics of evaporating silicate and graphite dust grains moving in circular and parabolic orbits around the white dwarf WD J1644−0449 with Teff ≈ 3830 K and M⋆ = 0.45 M⊙. The calculations accounted for the influence of radiation pressure and Poynting–Robertson drag on the grain dynamics. The results show that silicate grains of all sizes considered that leave the parent bodies on circular orbits evaporate completely at a distance of ∼3 stellar radii (R⋆) from the star. The boundary of the dust-free zone for graphite grains is closer to the star, ∼1.5R⋆, and is represented confidently only for larger grains with radius > 0.5 ${\mu m}$. We determined the lower limits of the radius for grains capable of reaching the stellar surface. For comparison, we analysed the dependences of lower size limits for infalling silicate grains for a set of WDs within the temperature range 3000–5000 K. We conclude that silicate grains with an initial size ≥ 300 ${\mu m}$ can reach the surface of WD J1644−0449. For stars with temperatures in the range 3000–5000 K, the corresponding grain size range is 0.016 μm–5 cm.