Related papers: V1309 Scorpii: merger of a contact binary
V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's object) is an enigmatic evolved star that underwent a very late thermal pulse a few years before its discovery in 1996. It ejected a new, hydrogen-deficient nebula in the process. Emission lines from the newly ejected…
V923 Sco is a bright ($V$ = 5.91), nearby ($\pi$ = 15.46$\pm$0.40 mas) southern eclipsing binary. Because both components are slow rotators, the minimum masses of the components are known with 0.2% precision from spectroscopy. The system…
We explore the possibility that the star alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse) is the outcome of a merger that occurred in a low mass ratio (q = M2/M1 = 0.07 - 0.25) binary system some time in the past hundreds of thousands of years. To that goal, we…
The dense, clustered environment in which massive stars form can lead to interactions with neighboring stars. It has been hypothesized that collisions and mergers may contribute to the growth of the most massive stars. In this paper we…
Stellar mergers are a brief-lived but common phase in the evolution of binary star systems. Among the many astrophysical implications of these events include the creation of atypical stars (e.g. magnetic stars, blue stragglers, rapid…
V921 Scorpii is a close binary system (separation 0.025") showing the B[e]-phenomenon. The system is surrounded by an enigmatic bipolar nebula, which might have been shaped by episodic mass-loss events, possibly triggered by dynamical…
Galaxy mergers are capable of triggering both star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) and therefore may represent an important pathway in the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, correlated…
Because the majority of massive stars are born as members of close binary systems, populations of massive main-sequence stars contain stellar mergers and products of binary mass transfer. We simulate populations of massive stars accounting…
We report high-precision observations of the linear polarization of the F1$\,$III star $\theta$ Scorpii. The polarization has a wavelength dependence of the form expected for a rapid rotator, but with an amplitude several times larger than…
We report high spatial resolution 11.2 and 18.1 micron imaging of V838 Monocerotis obtained with Gemini Observatory's Michelle instrument in 2007 March. Strong emission is observed from the unresolved stellar core of V838 Mon in our Gemini…
We present the results from a Chandra pilot study of 12 massive galaxy mergers selected from Galaxy Zoo. The sample includes major mergers down to a host galaxy mass of 10$^{11}$ $M_\odot$ that already have optical AGN signatures in at…
Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors reported the first binary neutron star merger candidate in the third observing run, S190425z, on 25th April 2019. A weak $\gamma$-ray excess was reported nearly coincidentally by the INTEGRAL satellite…
We present a technique to identify the most probable dynamical formation scenario for an observed binary or triple system containing one or more merger products or, alternatively, to rule out the possibility of a dynamical origin. Our…
Mergers between a massive galaxy and a small gas-rich companion (minor mergers) have been proposed as a viable mechanism for triggering radio emission in an active galaxy. Until now the problem has been catching this sequence of events as…
White dwarf stars are the most common stellar fossils. When in binaries, they make up the dominant form of compact object binary within the Galaxy and can offer insight into different aspects of binary formation and evolution. One of the…
The origin of dust grains in the interstellar medium is still open problem. \cite{Nicholls2013} found the presence of a significant amount of dust around V1309 Sco which maybe originate from the merger of a contact binary. We investigate…
Physical collisions between stars occur frequently in dense star clusters, either via close encounters between two single stars, or during strong dynamical interactions involving binary stars. Here we study stellar collisions that occur…
Galaxy interactions and mergers can enhance or reduce star formation, but a complete understanding of the involved processes is still lacking. The effect of dwarf galaxy mergers is even less clear than their massive counterpart. We present…
The joint detection of the gravitational wave (GW) event GW170817 and the short-duration gamma-ray burst (SGRB) event GRB 170817A, marked the beginning of GW multi-messenger astronomy and confirmed that binary neutron star mergers are…
CK Vul (Nova Vul 1670) is one of the most mysterious objects among erupting stellar objects. Past studies have suggested that CK Vul is a final helium-flash object resembling V605 Aql and V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's object). The peculiar outburst…