Related papers: V1309 SCO - Understanding a merger
Stellar models of massive single stars are still plagued by major uncertainties. Testing and calibrating against observations is essential for their reliability. For this purpose one preferably uses observed stars that have never…
Core-collapse supernovae (SNe), marking the deaths of massive stars, are among the most powerful explosions in the Universe, responsible, e.g., for a predominant synthesis of chemical elements in their host galaxies. The majority of massive…
The eccentric massive binary HD152248 (also known as V1007 Sco), which hosts two O7.5 III-II(f) stars, is the most emblematic eclipsing O-star binary in the very young and rich open cluster NGC6231. Its properties render the system an…
Advanced LIGO detectors at Hanford and Livingston made two confirmed and one marginal detection of binary black holes during their first observing run. The first event, GW150914, was from the merger of two black holes much heavier that…
We present the results of our year-long afterglow monitoring of GW170817, the first binary neutron star (NS) merger detected by advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo. New observations with the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the…
The majority of stars more massive than the Sun is found in binary or multiple star systems and many of them will interact during their evolution. Specific interactions, where progenitors and post-mass transfer (MT) systems are clearly…
Binary neutron stars have been observed as millisecond pulsars, gravitational-wave sources, and as the progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts and kilonovae. Massive stellar binaries that evolve into merging double neutron stars are believed…
The LIGO-Virgo collaboration recently reported a puzzling event, GW190814, with component masses of 23 and 2.6 solar masses. Motivated by the relatively small rate of such a coalescence and the fact that the mass of the secondary is close…
The detection of GW170817, it's extensive multi-wavelength follow-up campaign, and the large amount of theoretical development and interpretation that followed, have resulted in a significant step forward in the understanding of the binary…
The growing number of black hole binary (BHB) mergers detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have the potential to enable an unprecedented characterization of the physical processes and astrophysical…
Almost all massive stars have bound stellar companions, existing in binaries or higher-order multiples. While binarity is theorized to be an essential feature of how massive stars form, essentially all information about such properties is…
The initial distribution of rotational velocities of stars is still poorly known, and how the stellar spin evolves from birth to the various end points of stellar evolution is an actively debated topic. Binary interactions are often invoked…
Many massive binary systems undergo mass and angular momentum transfer over the course of their evolution. This kind of interaction is expected to deeply affect the properties of the mass donor and mass gainer and to leave various…
The merger of close binary systems containing two neutron stars should produce a burst of gravitational waves, as predicted by the theory of general relativity. A reliable estimate of the double-neutron-star merger rate in the Galaxy is…
We systematically explore the evolution of the merger of two carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs. The dynamical evolution of a 0.9 Msun + 0.6 Msun CO white dwarf merger is followed by a three-dimensional SPH simulation. We use an elaborate…
Approximately 10% of massive OBA main-sequence (MS) and pre-MS stars harbour strong, large-scale magnetic fields. At the same time there is a dearth of magnetic stars in close binaries. A process generating strong magnetic fields only in…
Modeling the late inspiral and merger of supermassive black holes is central to understanding accretion processes and the conditions under which electromagnetic emission accompanies gravitational waves. We use fully general relativistic,…
Belonging to the group of B[e] stars, V921 Scorpii is associated with a strong infrared excess and permitted and forbidden line emission, indicating the presence of low- and high-density circumstellar gas and dust. Many aspects of V921 Sco…
Neutron star binaries, such as the one observed in the famous binary pulsar PSR 1916+13, end their life in a catastrophic merge event (denoted here NS$^2$M). The merger releases $\approx 5 \cdot 10^{53}$ergs, mostly as neutrinos and…
Nearby companions alter the evolution of massive stars in binary systems. Using a sample of Galactic massive stars in nearby young clusters, we simultaneously measure all intrinsic binary characteristics relevant to quantify the frequency…