CONSTRAINTS ON THE LIFETIMES OF DISKS RESULTING FROM TIDALLY DESTROYED ROCKY PLANETARY BODIES

Spitzer IRAC observations of 15 metal-polluted white dwarfs reveal infrared excesses in the spectral energy distributions of HE 0110−5630, GD 61, and HE 1349−2305. All three of these stars have helium-dominated atmospheres, and their infrared emissions are consistent with warm dust produced by the tidal destruction of (minor) planetary bodies. This study brings the number of metal-polluted, helium and hydrogen atmosphere white dwarfs surveyed with IRAC to 53 and 38, respectively. It also nearly doubles the number of metal-polluted helium-rich white dwarfs found to have closely orbiting dust by Spitzer. From the increased statistics for both atmospheric types with circumstellar dust, we derive a typical disk lifetime of log [tdisk(yr)] = 5.6 ± 1.1 (ranging from 3 × 104 to 5 × 106 yr). This assumes a relatively constant rate of accretion over the timescale where dust persists, which is uncertain. We find that the fraction of highly metal-polluted helium-rich white dwarfs that have an infrared excess detected by Spitzer is only 23%, compared to 48% for metal-polluted hydrogen-rich white dwarfs, and we conclude from this difference that the typical lifetime of dusty disks is somewhat shorter than the diffusion timescales of helium-rich white dwarf. We also find evidence for higher time-averaged accretion rates onto helium-rich stars compared to the instantaneous accretion rates onto hydrogen-rich stars; this is an indication that our picture of evolved star–planetary system interactions is incomplete. We discuss some speculative scenarios that can explain the observations.