Intermediate resolution (0.5-1 Angs) optical spectroscopy of the cataclysmic variable SY Cnc reveals the spectrum of the donor star. Our data enable us to resolve the orbital motion of the donor and provide a new orbital solution, binary mass ratio and spectral classification. We find that the donor star has spectral type G8+-2 V and orbits the white dwarf with P=0.3823753 +- 0.0000003 day, K2=88.0 +-2.9 km/s and V sin i=75.5 +- 6.5 km/s. Our values are significantly different from previous works and lead to q=M2/M1=1.18 +- 0.14. This is one of the highest mass ratios known in a CV and is very robust because it is based on resolving the rotational broadening over a large number of metallic absorption lines. The donor could be a slightly evolved main-sequence or descendant from a massive star which underwent an episode of thermal-timescale mass transfer.
The shortest-period binary star system known to date, RX J0806.3+1527 (HM Cancri), has now been observed in the optical for more than two decades. Although it is thought to be a double degenerate binary undergoing mass transfer, an early surprise was that its orbital frequency, $f_0$, is currently increasing as the result of gravitational wave radiation. This is unusual since it was expected that the mass donor was degenerate and would expand on mass loss, leading to a decreasing $f_0$. We exploit two decades of high-speed photometry to precisely quantify the trajectory of HM Cancri, allowing …
The latest evolutionary phases of low- and intermediate mass stars are characterized by complex physical processes like turbulence, convection, stellar pulsations, magnetic fields, condensation of solid particles, and the formation of massive outflows that inject freshly produced heavy elements and dust particles into the interstellar medium. We use the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) to obtain spatially and spectrally resolved observations of the semi-regular Asymptotic Giant Branch star RS Cancri to shed light on the morpho-kinematic structure of its inner, wind forming environmen…
The new-found prevalence of extremely low mass (ELM, Mhe<0.2 Msun) helium white dwarfs (WDs) in tight binaries with more massive WDs has raised our interest in understanding the nature of their mass transfer. Possessing small (Menv~1e-3 Msun) but thick hydrogen envelopes, these objects have larger radii than cold WDs and so initiate mass transfer of H-rich material at orbital periods of 6-10 minutes. Building on the original work of D'Antona et al., we confirm the 1e6 yr period of continued inspiral with mass transfer of H-rich matter and highlight that the inspiraling direct-impact double WD …
Binary evolution is indispensable in stellar evolution to understand the formation and evolution of most peculiar and energetic objects, such as binary compact objects, Type Ia supernovae, X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, blue stragglers, hot subdwarfs, and central binaries in planetary nebulae. Mass transfer in binary stars can change the evolutionary path and fate of the corresponding objects relative to what is expected from single stellar evolution. What is the critical mass ratio at which unstable mass transfer occurs is an unsolved fundamental problem in binary evolution. To resolv…
We carried out a spectroscopic investigation of single lined white dwarfs (WDs) in double degenerate (DD) systems and discuss their binary evolution. Simulated spectra of the Halpha region are used to derive upper limits on the temperature of the invisible component and thus lower limits on the cooling age. This is done for a range of hypothetical secondary masses and a minimum cooling age deduced. Results are compared with the well known parameters of the visible primary, which allows us to determine a lower limit for the cooling age difference of both WDs. Most of the ten systems in our samp…
We discuss the results of modelling of young magnetized stars, where matter flow is calculated using the three-dimensional (3D) magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) "Cubed Sphere" code, and the spectra are calculated using the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code "TORUS". Two examples of modelling are shown: (1) accretion onto stars in stable and unstable regimes, and (2) accretion to a young star V2129 Oph, modelled with realistic parameters.
The Landscape of Unstable Mass Transfer in Interacting Binaries and Its Imprint on the Population of Luminous Red Novae
University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯·玻尔研究所、尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院）；Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森理论计算研究所）
In compact stellar triple systems, an evolved tertiary star can overflow its Roche lobe around the inner binary. Subsequently, the tertiary star can transfer mass to the inner binary in a stable manner, or Roche lobe overflow (RLOF) can be unstable and lead to common-envelope (CE) evolution. In the latter case, the inner binary enters the extended envelope of the tertiary star and spirals in towards the donor's core, potentially leading to mergers or ejections. Although studied in detail for individual systems, a comprehensive statistical view on the various outcomes of triple RLOF is lacking.…
We present the first self-consistent, three dimensional study of hydrodynamic simulations of mass transfer in binary systems with bipolytropic (composite polytropic) components. In certain systems, such as contact binaries or during the common envelope phase, the core-envelope structure of the stars plays an important role in binary interactions. In this paper, we compare mass transfer simulations of bipolytropic binary systems in order to test the suitability of our numerical tools for investigating the dynamical behaviour of such systems. The initial, equilibrium binary models possess a core…
The blue-straggler binary WOCS 5379 is a member of the old (6-7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188. WOCS 5379 comprises a blue straggler star with a white dwarf companion in a 120-day eccentric orbit. Combined with the orbital period, this helium white dwarf is evidence of previous mass transfer by a red giant. Detailed models of the system evolution from a progenitor main-sequence binary, including mass transfer, are made using the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). Both of the progenitor stars are evolved in the simulation. WOCS 5379 is well reproduced with a primary star of init…
We aim to study the progenitor properties and expected rates of the two lowest-mass binary black hole (BH) mergers, GW 151226 and GW 170608, detected within the first two Advanced LIGO-Virgo runs, in the context of the isolated binary-evolution scenario. We use the public MESA code, which we adapted to include BH formation and unstable mass transfer developed during a common-envelope (CE) phase. Using more than 60000 binary simulations, we explore a wide parameter space for initial stellar masses, separations, metallicities, and mass-transfer efficiencies. We obtain the expected distributions …
We present a numerical method for the study of double white dwarf (DWD) binary systems at the onset of super-Eddington mass transfer. We incorporate the physics of ideal inviscid hydrodynamical flow, Newtonian self-gravity, and radiation transport on a three-dimensional uniformly rotating cylindrical Eulerian grid. Care has been taken to conserve the key physical quantities such as angular momentum and energy. Our new method conserves total energy to a higher degree of accuracy than other codes that are presently being used to model mass-transfer in DWD systems. We present the results of verif…
I show that the 17th century eruption of the massive luminous blue variable (LBV) star P Cygni can be explained by mass transfer to a B-type binary companion in an eccentric orbit, under the assumption that the luminosity peaks occurred close to periastron passages. The mass was accreted by the companion and liberated gravitational energy, part of which went to an increase in luminosity. I find that mass transfer of ~ 0.1 solar masses to a B-type binary companion of ~3-6 solar masses can account for the energy of the eruption, and for the decreasing time interval between the observed peaks in …
The mass transfer in binaries with massive donors and compact companions, when the donors rapidly evolve after their main sequence, is one of the dominant formation channels of merging double stellar-mass black hole binaries. This mass transfer was previously postulated to be unstable and was expected to lead to a common envelope event. The common envelope event then would end with either double black hole formation, or with the merger of the two stars. We re-visit the stability of this mass transfer, and find that for a large range of the binary orbital separations this mass transfer is stabl…
Starting from first principles, we study radiative transfer by new feebly-interacting bosons (FIBs) such as axions, axion-like particles (ALPs), dark photons, and others. Our key simplification is to include only boson emission or absorption (including decay), but not scattering between different modes of the radiation field. Based on a given distribution of temperature and FIB absorption rate in a star, we derive explicit volume-integral expressions for the boson luminosity, reaching from the free-streaming to the strong-trapping limit. The latter is seen explicitly to correspond to quasi-the…
