A Precise Radial Velocity Search for Giant Planets orbiting polluted White Dwarfs
Abstract
We present a feasibility study for extending the
well-known radial velocity technique to search for
planetary companions around white dwarfs. Typically,
the spectra of white dwarfs contain only a
few pressure-broadened hydrogen and/or helium
lines, which do not permit to measure the radial
velocity with sufficient precision to detect planets.
A small subset of white dwarfs do also show sharp
metal lines, presumably from infalling circumstellar
material. We suggest to search these “polluted”
white dwarfs for possible giant planets using the
Doppler reflex motion technique. We show here
first results to estimate the Doppler information content
from simulated spectra of the metal-polluted
WD GD 362.
Department
Description
The 21st European Workshop on White Dwarfs was held in Austin, TX from July 23rd to 27th of 2018