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From the results of a comprehensive asteroid population evolution model, we conclude that the YORP-induced rotational fission hypothesis can be consistent with the observed population statistics of small asteroids in the main belt including…
Binary stars play a vital role in astrophysical research, as a good fraction of stars are in binaries. Binary fraction (BF) is known to change with stellar mass in the Galactic field, but such studies in clusters require binary…
Primordial black holes in the mass range of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors can comprise a significant fraction of the dark matter. Mass and spin measurements from coalescences can be used to distinguish between an astrophysical…
Most massive stars are believed to be born in close binary systems where they can exchange mass, which impacts the evolution of both binary components. Their evolution is of great interest in the search for the progenitors of gravitational…
Because the majority of massive stars are born as members of close binary systems, populations of massive main-sequence stars contain stellar mergers and products of binary mass transfer. We simulate populations of massive stars accounting…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been proposed as environments that can facilitate the capture of extreme-mass-ratio binaries and accelerate their inspiral beyond the rate expected from gravitational wave emission alone. In this work, we…
We study the evolution of stars that may be the progenitors of long-soft gamma-ray burst (GRBs) -- rotating naked helium stars presumed to have lost their envelopes to winds or companions. Our aim is to investigate the formation and…
The stability criteria of rapid mass transfer and common-envelope evolution are fundamental in binary star evolution. They determine the mass, mass ratio, and orbital distribution of many important systems, such as X-ray binaries, type Ia…
The discrepancies between observations and theoretical predictions of cataclysmic variables (CVs) suggest that there exists unknown angular momentum loss mechanism(s) besides magnetic braking and gravitational radiation. Mass loss due to…
Recent VLA and CARMA observations have shown proto-stars in binaries with unprecedented resolution. Specifically, the proto-stellar masses of systems such as CB230 IRS1 and L1165-SMM1 have been detected in the range of $0.1-0.25 \,…
Asteroid pairs sharing similar heliocentric orbits were found recently. Backward integrations of their orbits indicated that they separated gently with low relative velocities, but did not provide additional insight into their formation…
Stars are commonly formed in binary systems, which provide a natural laboratory for studying planet formation in extreme conditions. In our first paper (Paper I) of a series Xie et al. (2011), we have shown that the intermediate stage -…
The orbital separation of compact binary stars will shrink with time due to the emission of gravitational radiation. This inspiralling phase of a binary system's evolution generally will be very long compared to the system's orbital period,…
Massive stars are born predominantly as members of binary (or higher multiplicity) systems, and the presence of a companion can significantly alter their life and final fate. Therefore, any observed sample of massive stars or associated…
Using 3D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations and analytic theory, we study the orbital evolution of asymptotic-giant-branch (AGB) binary systems for various initial orbital separations and mass ratios, and thus different initial accretion…
We calculate the long-term evolution of angular momentum in double white dwarf binaries undergoing direct impact accretion over a broad range of parameter space. We allow the rotation rate of both components to vary, and account for the…
In the limit of extremely rapid mass transfer, the response of a donor star in an interacting binary becomes asymptotically one of adiabatic expansion. We survey here adiabatic mass loss from Population I stars of mass 0.10 Msun to 100 Msun…
Given the stellar density near the galactic center, close encounters between compact object binaries and the supermassive black hole are a plausible occurrence. We present results from a numerical study of close to 13 million such…
The formation of compact objects like stars and black holes is strongly constrained by the requirement that nearly all of the initial angular momentum of the diffuse material from which they form must be removed or redistributed during the…
We study the tidal disruption of binaries by a massive point mass (e.g. the black hole at the Galactic center), and we discuss how the ejection and capture preference between unequal-mass binary members depends on which orbit they approach…