Related papers: The Past and Future History of Regulus
Results are presented for a Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys high-resolution imaging campaign of 90 white dwarfs with known or suspected low mass stellar and substellar companions. Of the 72 targets which remain candidate…
Wide binaries with hot subdwarf-B (sdB) primaries and main sequence companions are thought to form only through stable Roche lobe overflow (RLOF) of the sdB progenitor near the tip of the red giant branch (RGB). We present the orbital…
Binary systems containing a magnetic white dwarf and a main-sequence star are considered extremely rare, perhaps non-existent. In the course of a search of magnetic fields in high-mass white dwarfs we have discovered a Sirius-like wide…
The origin of hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) is still unclear. About half of the known sdBs are in close binary systems for which common envelope ejection is the most likely formation channel. Little is known about this dynamic phase of binary…
The detailed structure of core-collapse supernova progenitors is crucial for studying supernova explosion engines and the corresponding multimessenger signals. In this paper, we investigate the influence of stellar rotation on binary…
Massive binary stars may constitute a substantial fraction of progenitors to supernovae and gamma-ray bursts, and the distribution of their orbital characteristics holds clues to the formation process of massive stars. As a contribution to…
We present radial velocity observations of four extremely low-mass (0.2 Msol) white dwarfs. All four stars show peak-to-peak radial velocity variations of 540 - 710 km/s with 1.0 - 5.9 hr periods. The optical photometry rules out…
We have found a system listed in the Kepler Binary Catalog (3.273 day period; Prsa et al. 2010) that we have determined is comprised of a low-mass, thermally-bloated, hot white dwarf orbiting an A star of about 2.3 solar masses. In this…
During post-main-sequence evolution, radial expansion of the primary star, accompanied by intense winds, can significantly alter the binary orbit via tidal dissipation and mass loss. The fate of a given binary system is determined by the…
White dwarfs with a F, G or K type companion represent the last common ancestor for a plethora of exotic systems throughout the galaxy, though to this point very few of them have been fully characterised in terms of orbital period and…
Recent analyses conclude that Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star (HD 39801), likely has a companion object with a period of about 2000 days orbiting at only 2.3 stellar radii, deep in the chromosphere of the supergiant. A probable detection…
We describe radial velocity observations of a large sample of apparently single white dwarfs (WDs), obtained in a long-term effort to discover close, double-degenerate (DD) pairs which might comprise viable Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia)…
The evolution of helium stars with masses of 1.5 - 6.7 M_sun in binary systems with a 1.4 M_sun neutron-star companion is presented. Such systems are assumed to be the remnants of Be/X-ray binaries with B-star masses in the range of 8 - 20…
The evolution of neutron stars in close binary systems with a low-mass companion is considered assuming the magnetic field to be confined within the solid crust. We adopt the standard scenario of the evolution in a close binary system in…
We report the detection of a radial velocity companion to the extremely low mass white dwarf LP400-22. The radial velocity of the white dwarf shows variations with a semi-amplitude of 119 km/s and a 0.98776 day period, which implies a…
The formation and evolution of binaries which contain two neutron stars or a neutron star with a black hole are discussed in detail. The evolution of the distributions in orbital period and eccentricity for neutron star binaries are studied…
The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…
We measure precise orbits and dynamical masses and derive age constraints for six confirmed and one candidate Sirius-like systems, including the Hyades member HD 27483. Our orbital analysis incorporates radial velocities, relative…
Close white dwarf binaries make up a wide variety of objects such as double white dwarf binaries, which are possible SN Ia progenitors, cataclysmic variables, super soft sources, or AM CVn stars. The evolution and formation of close white…
The shaping of the nebula is currently one of the outstanding unsolved problems in planetary nebula (PN) research. Several mechanisms have been proposed, most of which require a binary companion. However, direct evidence for a binary…