Related papers: Thermal Timescale Mass Transfer Rates in Intermedi…
The 2001 outburst of WZ Sagittae has shown the most compelling evidence yet for an enhancement of the mass transfer rate from the donor star during a dwarf nova outburst in the form of hot-spot brightening. I show that even in this extreme…
Mass transfer in binary systems is the key process in the formation of various classes of objects, including merging binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron stars. Orbital evolution during mass transfer depends on how much mass is accreted…
We present the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations of mass transfer in semi-detached binary systems in which the mass-losing star is rotating. The cases of aligned and misaligned non-synchronous rotation of the donor star are…
A binary in which a slightly evolved star starts mass transfer to a neutron star can evolve towards ultra-short orbital periods under the influence of magnetic braking. This is called magnetic capture. We investigate in detail for which…
Radial velocity studies of accreting binary stars commonly use accretion disk emission lines to determine the radial velocity of the primary star and therefore the mass ratio. These emission line radial velocity curves are often shifted in…
Mass transfer from an evolved donor star to its binary companion is a standard feature of stellar evolution in binaries. In wide binaries, the companion star captures some of the mass ejected in a wind by the primary star. The captured…
The characteristics of black-hole X-ray binaries can be used to obtain information about their evolutionary history and the process of black-hole formation. In this paper I focus on systems with donor masses lower than the inferred…
The maximum mass of neutron stars (NSs) is of great importance for constraining equations of state of NSs and understanding the mass gap between NSs and stellar-mass black holes. NSs in X-ray binaries would increase in mass by accreting…
Justham, Rappaport & Podsiadlowski (2006) recently suggested that black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries (BHLMXBs) with short orbital periods may have evolved from black-hole intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (BHIMXBs). In their model the…
The distinguishing feature of the evolution of close binary stars is the role played by the mass exchange between the component stars. Whether the mass transfer is dynamically stable is one of the essential questions in binary evolution. In…
We investigate the secular evolution of the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity due to mass transfer in eccentric binaries, assuming conservation of total system mass and orbital angular momentum. Assuming a delta function mass…
We present a simple model for the evolutionary states of neutron stars in pre-low-mass X-ray binaries during the main sequence stage of donor stars. It is shown that for typical parameters some of the neutron stars in these systems can not…
The outbursts of low mass X-ray binaries are prolonged relative to those of dwarf nova cataclysmic variables as a consequence of X-ray irradiation of the disc. We show that the time-scale of the decay light curve and its luminosity at a…
X-rays trace accretion onto compact objects in binaries with low mass companions at rates ranging up to near Eddington. Accretion at high rates onto neutron stars goes through cycles with time-scales of days to months. At lower average…
We study the formation of low-mass X-ray binaries with a black hole as accreting object. The performed semi-analytic analysis reveals that the formation rate of black holes in low-mass X-ray binaries is about two orders of magnitude smaller…
(abridged) We present the first study that combines binary population synthesis in the Galactic disk and detailed evolutionary calculations of low- and intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (L/IMXBs). We show that the formation probability of…
We study the origin of the ultraluminous X-ray source M82-X1 in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. This X-ray source is of particular interest as it is currently the best candidate intermediate mass black hole; it is associated with a 54mHz…
Despite numerous efforts to better understand binary star evolution, some aspects of it remain poorly constrained. In particular, the evolution of eccentric binaries has remained elusive mainly because the Roche lobe formalism derived for…
Our aim is to investigate tidal interaction in High-Mass X-ray Binary stars in order to determine in which objects the rotation of the mass donors is synchronized or pseudosynchronized with the orbital motion of the compact companion. We…
A nova eruption irradiates and heats the donor star in a cataclysmic variable to high temperatures $T_{\rm irr}$, causing its outer layers to expand and overflow the Roche lobe. We calculate the donor's heating and expansion both…