Visualizing the mass transfer flow in direct-impact accretion
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
2025-11-06 v1
Abstract
We use a variety of visualization techniques to display the interior and surface flows in a double white dwarf binary undergoing direct-impact mass transfer and evolving dynamically to a merger. The structure of the flow can be interpreted in terms of standard dynamical, cyclostrophic and geostrophic arguments. We describe and showcase some visualization and analysis techniques of potential interest for astrophysical hydrodynamics. In the context of R Coronae Borealis stars, we find that mixing of accretor material with donor material at the shear layer between the fast accretion belt and the slower rotating accretor body will always result in some dredge-up. We also discuss briefly some potential applications to other types of binaries.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.21610,
title = {Visualizing the mass transfer flow in direct-impact accretion},
author = {Juhan Frank and Alexander Straub and Sagiv Shiber and Parsa Amini and Dominic C. Marcello and Patrick Diehl and Thomas Ertl and Filip Sadlo and Steffen Frey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.21610},
year = {2025}
}