4,393 research outputs found
Externally-polluted white dwarfs with dust disks
We report Spitzer Space Telescope photometry of eleven externally-polluted
white dwarfs. Of the nine stars for which we have IRAC photometry, we find that
GD 40, GD 133 and PG 1015+161 each has an infrared excess that can be
understood as arising from a flat, opaque, dusty disk. GD 56 also has an
infrared excess characteristic of circumstellar dust, but a flat-disk model
cannot reproduce the data unless there are grains as warm as 1700 K and perhaps
not even then. Our data support the previous suggestion that the metals in the
atmosphere of GD 40 are the result of accretion of a tidally-disrupted asteroid
with a chondritic composition.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Chemical Association via Exact Thermodynamic Formulations
It can be fruitful to view two-component physical systems of attractive
monomers, A and B, ``chemically'' in terms of a reaction A + B C, where C =
AB is an associated pair or complex. We show how to construct free energies in
the three-component or chemical picture which, under mass-action equilibration,
exactly reproduce any given two-component or ``physical'' thermodynamics.
Order-by-order matching conditions and closed-form chemical representations
reveal the freedom available to modify the A-C, B-C, and C-C interactions and
to adjust the association constant. The theory (in the simpler one-component,
i.e., A = B, case) is illustrated by treating a van der Waals fluid.Comment: 15 double-spaced pages (RevTeX), including 1 eps figur
A Dusty Disk Around GD 362, a White Dwarf With a Uniquely High Photospheric Metal Abundance
Eighteen years after an infrared excess was discovered associated with the
white dwarf G29-38, we report ground-based measurements (JHKL'N') with
mJy-level sensitivity of GD 362 that show it to be a second single white dwarf
with an infrared excess. As a first approximation, the excess around GD 362,
which amounts to about 3% of the total stellar luminosity, can be explained by
emission from a passive, flat, opaque dust disk that lies within the Roche
radius of the white dwarf. The dust may have been produced by the tidal
disruption of a large parent body such as an asteroid. Accretion from this
circumstellar disk could account for the remarkably high abundance of metals in
the star's photosphere.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. ApJ Letters, in pres
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