Accretion of tidally disrupted asteroids on to white dwarfs : Direct accretion versus disc processing
Atmospheric heavy elements have been observed in more than a quarter of white dwarfs (WDs) at different cooling ages, indicating ongoing accretion of asteroidal material, whilst only a few per cent of the WDs possess a dust disc, and all these WDs are accreting metals. Here, assuming that a rubble-pile asteroid is scattered inside a WD's Roche lobe by a planet, we study its tidal disruption and th
