SIMBAD references

Given the high metal contents observed for many stars with planets (SWPs), we examine the overall likelihood that the consumption of a giant planet could pollute its host star. First, we discuss ⁶Li and ⁷Li as indicators of pollution, verifying that ⁶Li is a strong indicator of pollution 30 Myr after star formation and showing that it strongly constrains the amount of heavy-element pollution incorporated into the star. Detection of ⁶Li in SWPs could also be used to distinguish between giant planet formation theories and can be used to detect the consumption of giant planets independent of planet mass. Second, we examine the probability that giant planets between 1 and 3 M_J could be destroyed in the outer convection zone of stars slightly more massive than the Sun (for which detection of a chemical signature of pollution would be easiest). We find that heated giant planets would be efficiently destroyed near the surface of the star, while the cores of cold giant planets might be able to survive a plunge through the base of the star's convection zone. Third, we examine whether dynamical processes could bring a giant planet close enough to the star to destroy it and whether the destruction of a planet would necessarily affect other planets in the system. While tidal interaction between protoplanets and their nascent disks may have led them to the proximity of their host stars, postformation star-planet interaction can lead to tidal disruption of the planet and accretion of its material or orbital decay followed by hydrodynamical interaction. Throughout, we consider the case of HD 82943, a star with a preliminary detection of ⁶Li that is known to have two planets. Using stellar models including diffusion, we estimate the mass of HD 82943 to be ∼1.2 M_☉ and its age to be ∼0.5-1.5 Gyr. The observed ⁷Li abundance for HD 82943 is consistent with stars of similar T_eff and age in the open cluster NGC 752. We describe a possible dynamical history for a hypothetical planet in the presence of the two resonant planets currently known. We present stable orbital configurations in which the hypothetical planet has low eccentricity and semimajor axis near 0.02 AU, so that it is dynamically decoupled from the resonant planets. Tidal interactions with the slowly rotating star can subsequently drag the planet into the stellar surface within the age of the star.