Related papers: Optical and X-ray Transients from Planet-Star Merg…
Binary neutron star mergers are believed to eject significant masses with a diverse range of velocities. Once these ejected materials begin to be decelerated by a homogeneous medium, relativistic electrons are mainly cooled down by…
(Abridged) The solar system gas giant planets are oblate due to their rapid rotation. A measurement of the planet's projected oblateness would constrain the planet's rotational period. Planets that are synchronously rotating with their…
High-velocity stellar collisions in galactic nuclei produce ejecta that generate potentially observable electromagnetic radiation, making them promising nuclear transients. However, the photometric and spectroscopic properties of these…
We perform radiative magnetohydrodynamics simulations in general relativity (GRRMHD) of super-Eddington disk accretion onto neutron stars endowed with a magnetic dipole corresponding to surface strengths not exceeding 100 GigaGauss.…
All transiting planets are at risk of contamination by blends with nearby, unresolved stars. Blends dilute the transit signal, causing the planet to appear smaller than it really is, or produce a false positive detection when the target…
Supergiant X-ray Binaries (SgXB) host a compact object, often a neutron star (NS), orbiting an evolved O/B star. Mass transfer proceeds through the intense line-driven wind of the stellar donor, a fraction of which is captured by the…
The process of unstable mass transfer in a stellar binary can result in either a complete merger of the stars or successful removal of the donor envelope leaving a surviving more compact binary. "Luminous red nova" (LRN) are the class of…
When an extrasolar planet passes in front of its star (transits), its radius can be measured from the decrease in starlight and its orbital period from the time between transits. Multiple planets transiting the same star reveal more: period…
We present a model for the prediction of the optical/infra-red emission from ULXs. In the model, ULXs are binary systems with accretion taking place through Roche lobe overflow. We show that irradiation effects and presence of an accretion…
A redshift sample of 545 field galaxies is used to examine how the galaxy merger rate changes with redshift, and how mergers affect the observed properties of galaxies in close pairs. Close pairs are defined as those with projected…
We discuss the effect of chemical separation as matter freezes at the base of the ocean of an accreting neutron star, and the subsequent enrichment of the ocean in light elements and inward transport of heat through convective mixing. We…
The structure of static atmospheres around unmagnetized neutron stars undergoing steady, spherical accretion is discussed. We focus on the ``hot'' configurations presented by Turolla et al. (1994) and calculate the radiation spectrum using…
The mergers of black hole-neutron star binaries are calcuated using a pseudo-general relativistic potential that incorporates ${\mathcal O}(v^2/c^2)^3$ post-Newtonian corrections. Both normal matter neutron stars and self-bound strange…
We use a combination of deep, high angular resolution imaging data from the CDFS (HST/ACS GOODS survey) and ground based near-IR $K_s$ images to derive the evolution of the galaxy major merger rate in the redshift range $0.2 \leq z \leq…
Galaxies are believed to be in one-to-one correspondence with simulated dark matter subhalos. We use high-resolution N-body simulations of cosmological volumes to calculate the statistical properties of subhalo (galaxy) major mergers at…
The standard picture of accretion is a steady flow of matter from the disc onto the young star - a concept which assumes the star-disc system to be completely isolated. However, in a dense cluster environment star-disc systems do interact…
In the cores of young dense star clusters repeated stellar collisions involving the same object can occur, which has been suggested to lead to the formation of an intermediate-mass black hole. In order to verify this scenario we compute the…
We re-examine the photometric and spectroscopic evidence available for the star OGLE-TR-56, recently discovered to harbor a giant planet presenting transits and orbiting with a period of 1.21 days. We investigate the possibility that the…
The low-resolution transmission spectra of ultra-hot Jupiters observed shortward of 0.5 microns indicate strong absorption at short-wavelengths. Previous explanations have included scattering, photochemistry, escaping metals, and…
The nearby accreting neutron star binary Sco X-1 is the closest example of ongoing relativistic jet production at high Eddington ratios. Previous radio studies have revealed that alongside mildly relativistic, radio-emitting ejecta, there…