Related papers: Rotational Synchronization May Enhance Habitabilit…
M- and K-dwarf stars make up 86% of the stellar population and host many promising astronomical targets for detecting habitable climates in the near future. Of the two, M dwarfs currently offer greater observational advantages and are home…
Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial…
We introduce a new model to explain the modulation of the orbital period observed in close stellar binary systems based on an angular momentum exchange between the spin of the active component and the orbital motion. This spin-orbit…
Recent discoveries of circumbinary planets by Kepler mission provide motivation for understanding their birthplaces - protoplanetary disks around stellar binaries with separations <1 AU. We explore properties and evolution of such…
This paper reviews our knowledge on binary central stars of planetary nebulae and presents some personal opinions regarding their evolution. Three types of interactions are distinguished: type I, where the binary companion induces the mass…
We investigate the orbital dynamics of circumbinary planetary systems with two planets around a circular or eccentric orbit binary. The orbits of the two planet are initially circular and coplanar to each other, but misaligned with respect…
One of the main uncertainties in evolutionary calculations of massive stars is the efficiency of internal mixing. It changes the chemical profile inside the star and can therefore affect the structure and further evolution. We demonstrate…
Aims. The aim of this work is to study the dynamical effects of the Galaxy on binary star systems with physical and orbital charac- teristics similar to those of the population of known wide binary stars with exoplanets. As secondary goal…
Observations indicate that members of close stellar binaries often have mass ratios close to unity, while longer-period systems exhibit a more uniform mass-ratio distribution. This paper provides a theoretical explanation for this finding…
Nearly every star known to host planets will become a white dwarf, and nearly 100 planet-hosts are now known to be accompanied by binary stellar companions. Here, we determine how a binary companion triggers instability in otherwise…
Motivated by the diversity of circumstellar planets in binary stars and the strong effects of the secular resonances of Jupiter and Saturn on the formation and architecture of the inner solar system, we have launched an expansive project on…
Observations of hot Jupiters around solar-type stars with very short orbital periods (~day) suggest that tidal dissipation in such stars is not too efficient so that these planets can survive against rapid orbital decay. This is consistent…
Evidence from the analysis of eclipsing binary systems revealed that late-type stars are larger and cooler than predicted by models, and that this is probably caused by stellar magnetic activity. In this work, we revisit this problem taking…
With more than 260 extrasolar planetary systems discovered to-date, the search for habitable planets has found new grounds. Unlike our solar system, the stars of many of these planets are hosts to eccentric or close-in giant bodies. Several…
We summarize the results of recent theoretical work on the dynamical evolution of globular clusters containing primordial binaries. Even a very small initial binary fraction (e.g., 10%) can play a key role in supporting a cluster against…
The secular stellar mass-loss causes an amplification of the orbital separation in fragile, common proper motion, binary systems with separations of the order of 1000 A.U. In these systems, companions evolve as two independent coeval stars…
The detection of moons orbiting extrasolar planets ("exomoons") has now become feasible. Once they are discovered in the circumstellar habitable zone, questions about their habitability will emerge. Exomoons are likely to be tidally locked…
We present a self-consistent model for the tidal evolution of circumbinary planets. Based on the weak-friction model, we derive expressions of the resulting forces and torques considering complete tidal interactions between all the bodies…
Transiting planets in multiple-star systems, especially high-order multiples, make up a small fraction of the known planet population but provide unique opportunities to study the environments in which planets would have formed.…
We demonstrate that habitable Earth-mass planets and moons can exist in the Kepler-16 system, known to host a Saturn-mass planet around a stellar binary, by investigating their orbital stability in the standard and extended habitable zone…