Related papers: Going out with a bang: compact object collisions r…
We study the formation of accretion disks resulting from dynamical three dimensional binary coalescence calculations, where a neutron star is tidally disrupted before being swallowed by its black hole companion. By subsequently assuming…
A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between $\sim10^2$ and $10^5\,\rm AU$. In the standard lore of binary physics, these would evolve as effectively single stars that remotely orbit one…
Stars and other macroscopic objects may be surrounded by potentially large field configurations of very light scalars coupled to ordinary matter. If the star ends in a black hole, e.g. via a supernova or a neutron star merger, the source…
Close encounters and physical collisions between stars in young dense clusters can result in new channels for stellar evolution, and may lead to the formation of very massive stars and black holes via runaway merging. We present some…
I describe the current state of our knowledge of the mapping between the initial masses of stars and the compact objects -- particularly neutron stars and black holes -- that they produce. Most of that knowledge is theoretical in nature,…
The majority of massive stars are formed in binary systems. It is hence reasonable to expect that most core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) take place in binaries and the existence of a companion star may leave some imprints in observed…
We review the main physical processes that lead to the formation of stellar binary black holes (BBHs) and to their merger. BBHs can form from the isolated evolution of massive binary stars. The physics of core-collapse supernovae and the…
When a compact object is formed, an impulse (kick) will be imparted to the system by the mass lost during the core-collapse supernova (SN). A number of other mechanisms may impart an additional kick on the system, although evidence for…
We analyze the outcome of the interaction between a stellar binary and a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) by performing a large number of gravitational scattering experiments. Most of the encounters result in either the ejection of an…
Runaway stars are stars observed to have large peculiar velocities. Two mechanisms are thought to contribute to the ejection of runaway stars, both involve binarity (or higher multiplicity). In the binary supernova scenario a runaway star…
Interacting double white dwarf binaries can give rise to a wide variety of astrophysical outcomes ranging from faint thermonuclear and Type Ia supernovae to the formation of neutron stars and stably accreting AM Canum Venaticorum systems.…
Mergers of neutron stars (NS+NS) or neutron stars and stellar mass black holes (NS+BS) eject a small fraction of matter with a sub-relativistic velocity. Upon rapid decompression nuclear density medium condenses into neutron rich nuclei,…
An alternate model for gamma ray bursts is suggested. For a white dwarf (WD) and neutron star (NS) very close binary system, the WD (close to Mch) can detonate due to tidal heating, leading to a SN. Material falling on to the NS at…
Anticipating the kinematic constraints from the Gaia mission, we perform an extensive numerical study of the evolution of massive binary systems to predict the peculiar velocities that stars obtain when their companion collapses and…
The formation of massive stars in close binary systems is complicated due to their high radiation pressure, the crowded environment and the expected minimum separation for fragmentation being many times greater than the orbital separation.…
Many planets are observed in stellar binary systems, and their frequency may be comparable to that of planetary systems around single stars. Binary stellar evolution in such systems influences the dynamical evolution of the resident…
We study the collapse of rapidly rotating supermassive stars that may have formed in the early Universe. By self-consistently simulating the dynamics from the onset of collapse using three-dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamics with…
Theoretical and observational studies suggest that stellar binaries exist in large numbers in galactic nuclei like our own Galactic Center. Neutron stars (NSs), and debatedly, black holes (BHs) and white dwarfs (WDs), receive natal kicks at…
We analyze the dynamical evolution of binary stars that interact with a static background of single stars in the environment of a massive black hole (MBH). All stars are considered to be single mass, Newtonian point particles. We follow the…
Classical novae are the most common astrophysical thermonuclear explosions, occurring on the surfaces of white dwarf stars accreting gas from companions in binary star systems. Novae typically expel ~10^(-4) solar masses of material at…