Asymmetric nightside CO2 features, inefficient heat transport, and precise evolutionary constraints: Spectroscopic phase curves reveal the past and present of a white dwarf-brown dwarf binary

Abstract

We present the first JWST phase curve of a white dwarf-brown dwarf binary, a NIRSpec PRISM observation of ZTFJ0038+2030. Short-period white dwarf-brown dwarf binaries provide unique laboratories to probe substellar atmospheres. Tidal locking drives hot Jupiter-like atmospheric dynamics in the brown dwarf. The system&#39;s formation history offers a window into planetary systems around post-main-sequence stars. We obtain a full-orbit phase curve of ZTF0038, including a total eclipse of the white dwarf, which enables us to separate the two components&#39; emission throughout the entire orbit, and we model the brown dwarf&#39;s phase-resolved emission spectra using substellar atmosphere forward models and atmospheric retrievals. The PRISM spectrum covers ~80% of the brown dwarf&#39;s bolometric emission, enabling a nearly model-independent energy balance calculation, which yields a day-to-nightside heat transport efficiency of <10%. Inefficient heat redistribution is further supported by the phase curve shape and the nightside spectrum closely resembling non-irradiated mid-to-late T dwarfs. The spectroscopic phase curves reveal a stark nightside asymmetry associated with a strong CO2 absorption feature at 4.2 um, while the retrieved abundances indicate a longitudinally homogeneous distribution of CO2 as well as all other key species detected in the atmosphere. The precise internal luminosity measurement of the brown dwarf informs both the age of the WD-BD system (7.5-8.8 Gyr) and indicates a low common-envelope ejection efficiency. These data illustrate the exquisite opportunity to probe the three-dimensional processes of substellar atmospheres, connect substellar and exoplanet atmospheres, and probe the evolution of post-main-sequence planetary systems using WD-BDs.