Related papers: Do R Coronae Borealis Stars Form from Double White…
In 2007, R Coronae Borealis (R CrB) went into an historically deep and long decline. In this state, the dust acts like a natural coronagraph at visible wavelengths, allowing faint nebulosity around the star to be seen. Imaging has been…
R Coronae Borealis (RCB) and dustless Hydrogen-deficient Carbon (dLHdC) stars are believed to be remnants of low mass white dwarf mergers. These supergiant stars have peculiar hydrogen-deficient carbon-rich chemistries and stark…
We present results from a systematic infrared (IR) census of R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the Milky Way, using data from the Palomar Gattini IR (PGIR) survey. R Coronae Borealis stars are dusty, erratic variable stars presumably formed…
We present a new theoretical estimate for the birthrate of R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars that is in agreement with recent observational data. We find the current Galactic birthrate of RCB stars to be $\approx$ 25% of the Galactic rate of…
It is increasingly suspected that the rare R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars - hydrogen-deficient and carbon-rich supergiant stars - are the products of mergers of CO/He white-dwarf binary systems in the intermediate mass regime…
The merger of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs has long been theorized to lead to a massive carbon-oxygen or oxygen-neon white dwarf, accretion-induced collapse to a neutron star, or a type Ia supernova. Determining which mergers lead to a…
Recently, a class of Roche-lobe-filling binary systems consisting of hot subdwarf stars and white dwarfs with sub-hour periods has been discovered. At present, the hot subdwarf is in a shell He burning phase and is transferring some of its…
R Coronae Borealis stars (RCB) are a rare type of evolved carbon-rich supergiant stars that are increasingly thought to result from the merger of two white dwarfs, called the Double degenerate scenario. This scenario is also studied as a…
The hydrogen-deficient, carbon-rich R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are known for being prolific producers of dust which causes their large iconic declines in brightness. Several RCB stars, including R CrB, itself, have large extended dust…
We perform stellar evolution calculations of the remnant of the merger of two He white dwarfs (WDs). Our initial conditions are taken from hydrodynamic simulations of double WD mergers and the viscous disc phase that follows. We evolve…
Optical high-resolution spectra of the R Coronae Borealis star V CrA at light maximum and during minimum light arediscussed. Abundance analysis confirms previous results showing that V CrA has the composition of the small subclass of R…
The study of extended, cold dust envelopes surrounding R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars began with their discovery by IRAS. RCB stars are carbon-rich supergiants characterized by their extreme hydrogen deficiency and for their irregular and…
We study the angular momentum evolution of binaries containing two white dwarfs which merge and become cool helium-rich supergiants. Our object is to compare predicted rotation velocities with observations of highly evolved stars believed…
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…
R Coronae Borealis stars (RCBs) are hydrogen-deficient and carbon-rich supergiant stars. They are very rare, as only $\sim50$ are actually known in our Galaxy. Interestingly, RCBs are strongly suspected to be the evolved merger product of…
Hydrogen-deficient Carbon (HdC) stars are rare, low-mass, chemically peculiar, supergiant variables believed to be formed by a double white dwarf (DWD) merger, specifically of a Carbon/Oxygen- (CO-) and a Helium-white dwarf (He-WD). They…
White dwarfs (WDs) are the stellar core remnants of low mass stars. They are typically divided into three main composition groups: Oxygen Neon (ONe), Carbon Oxygen (CO) and Helium (He) WDs. The evolution of binary systems can significantly…
The merger of compact binaries, especially black holes and neutron stars, is frequently invoked to explain gamma-ray bursts (GRB's). In this paper, we present three dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of the relatively neglected mergers…
Recently a new class of hot subluminous stars strongly enriched in C and O have been discovered (CO-sdOs). These stars show abundances very similar to those observed in PG1159 stars but at lower temperatures. Moreover, it has been recently…
Optical and near-IR photometry suggests that the carbon star DY Persei exhibits fadings similar to those of R Coronae Borealis (RCB) variables. Photometric surveys of the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds uncovered new DY Per variables with…