Searching for Massive Remnant Planetary System Hosts with White Dwarf Gaia XP Spectra
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Astronomy & Institute for Astrophysical Research Boston University Boston
- 2Université de Montréal
- 3University of Victoria
- 4Center for Astrophysics—Harvard & Smithsonian
Abstract
Remnant planetary systems around massive white dwarfs ( M WD > 0.8 M ⊙ ) are intrinsically rare and remain poorly characterized. As the evolutionary endpoints of intermediate-mass B- and A-type stars, these white dwarfs provide valuable constraints on the formation and survival of planetary systems around higher-mass progenitors. In the absence of large, dedicated spectroscopic surveys, extremely low-resolution Gaia XP spectra provide a powerful means of identifying candidate metal-polluted white dwarfs. We obtained follow-up observations with low-resolution optical spectroscopy ( R = 500–4000) to search primarily for Ca ii H&K absorption in massive, metal-polluted white dwarf candidates selected from Gaia XP spectra to increase the sample of massive remnant planetary system hosts among objects with effective temperatures below ∼15,000 K. We find that Gaia XP spectra recover metal-polluted white dwarfs efficiently, confirming 82% ± 5% recovery of photospheric metals (59 of 72 targets) in high-confidence candidates of our sample (with classifier probability P DZ > 0.65). However, Gaia photometric masses derived from G , G BP , and G RP broadband photometry are not sufficient to identify the most massive systems, as reliable mass determinations require detailed metal-enriched atmospheric fits. We present a selection of cool white dwarfs confirmed to be both massive and metal-polluted, demonstrating that Gaia XP spectra can substantially expand the sample of white dwarf exoplanet hosts. Our search led to the discovery of a new transiting debris system, SDSS J1624+5404, the 21st published system to date and eighth to show periodic transits.
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BibTeX
@article{rouis2026searching,
title = {{Searching for Massive Remnant Planetary System Hosts with White Dwarf Gaia XP Spectra}},
author = {Lou Baya Ould Rouis and J. J. Hermes and Pierre Bergeron and Simon Blouin and Stefan Arseneau and Tim Cunningham and Joseph A. Guidry and Ciarra Coston},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa35},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa35},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Searching for Massive Remnant Planetary System Hosts with White Dwarf Gaia XP Spectra
AU - Lou Baya Ould Rouis
AU - J. J. Hermes
AU - Pierre Bergeron
AU - Simon Blouin
AU - Stefan Arseneau
AU - Tim Cunningham
AU - Joseph A. Guidry
AU - Ciarra Coston
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa35
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa35
AB - Remnant planetary systems around massive white dwarfs ( M WD > 0.8 M ⊙ ) are intrinsically rare and remain poorly characterized. As the evolutionary endpoints of intermediate-mass B- and A-type stars, these white dwarfs provide valuable constraints on the formation and survival of planetary systems around higher-mass progenitors. In the absence of large, dedicated spectroscopic surveys, extremely low-resolution Gaia XP spectra provide a powerful means of identifying candidate metal-polluted white dwarfs. We obtained follow-up observations with low-resolution optical spectroscopy ( R = 500–4000) to search primarily for Ca ii H&K absorption in massive, metal-polluted white dwarf candidates selected from Gaia XP spectra to increase the sample of massive remnant planetary system hosts among objects with effective temperatures below ∼15,000 K. We find that Gaia XP spectra recover metal-polluted white dwarfs efficiently, confirming 82% ± 5% recovery of photospheric metals (59 of 72 targets) in high-confidence candidates of our sample (with classifier probability P DZ > 0.65). However, Gaia photometric masses derived from G , G BP , and G RP broadband photometry are not sufficient to identify the most massive systems, as reliable mass determinations require detailed metal-enriched atmospheric fits. We present a selection of cool white dwarfs confirmed to be both massive and metal-polluted, demonstrating that Gaia XP spectra can substantially expand the sample of white dwarf exoplanet hosts. Our search led to the discovery of a new transiting debris system, SDSS J1624+5404, the 21st published system to date and eighth to show periodic transits.
SN - 1538-4357
SN - 0004-637X
ER -