Related papers: A Numerical Method for Studying Super-Eddington Ma…
Close interactions and mass transfer in binary stars can lead to the formation of many different exotic stellar populations, but detailed modeling of mass transfer is a computationally challenging problem. Here, we present an alternate…
We provide a detailed characterization of 2M07515777+1807352, a post-common envelope eclipsing binary system with a 10.3 d, nearly, but not quite, circular orbit (e = 0.02). This system consists of a massive white dwarf (WD) ($1.08$…
Information about the last stages of a binary neutron star inspiral and the final merger can be extracted from quasi-equilibrium configurations and dynamical evolutions. In this article, we construct quasi-equilibrium configurations for…
Most studies of mass transfer in binary systems assume circular orbits at the onset of Roche lobe overflow. However, there are theoretical and observational indications that mass transfer could occur in eccentric orbits. In particular,…
We systematically investigate the mergers of neutron star-white dwarf binaries from beginning to end, with focus on the properties of the inflows and outflows in accretion disks and their electromagnetic emissions. Using population…
We describe radial velocity observations of a large sample of apparently single white dwarfs (WDs), obtained in a long-term effort to discover close, double-degenerate (DD) pairs which might comprise viable Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia)…
The new-found prevalence of extremely low mass (ELM, Mhe<0.2 Msun) helium white dwarfs (WDs) in tight binaries with more massive WDs has raised our interest in understanding the nature of their mass transfer. Possessing small (Menv~1e-3…
The evolution and stability of mass transfer of CO+He WD binaries are not well understood. Observationally they may emerge as AM CVn binaries and are important gravitational wave (GW) emitters. In this work, we have modeled the evolution of…
We elaborate on the analytical model of Ritter, Zhang, and Kolb (2000, A&A 360, 959) which describes the basic physics of irradiation-driven mass transfer cycles in semi-detached compact binary systems. In particular, we take into account a…
In this work, we investigate the impact of tidal torques and mass transfer on the population of double white dwarfs (DWDs) that will be observed with LISA. Starting from a distribution of DWDs at formation predicted by numerical…
The mass growth rate of mass-accreting white dwarfs (WDs) is a key factor in binary evolution scenarios toward Type Ia supernovae. Many authors have reported very different WD mass increasing rates. In this review, we clarify the reasons…
We use a variety of visualization techniques to display the interior and surface flows in a double white dwarf binary undergoing direct-impact mass transfer and evolving dynamically to a merger. The structure of the flow can be interpreted…
We investigate the time an electronic excitation travels in a supermolecular setup using a measurement process in an open quantum-system framework. The approach is based on the stochastic Schr\"odinger equation and uses a Hamiltonian from…
The structure of plasma flows in close binary systems in which one of the components is a rapidly rotating magnetic white dwarf is studied. The main example considered is the AE Aquarii system; the spin period of the white dwarf is about a…
We have carried out 200,000 N-body simulations of three identical stellar embryos with masses from a Chabrier IMF and embedded in a molecular core. The bodies are initially non-hierarchical and undergo chaotic motions, while accreting using…
Despite their unique astrophysical relevance, the outcome of white dwarf binary mergers has so far only been studied for a very restricted number of systems. Here we present the results of a survey with more than two hundred simulations…
To measure the onset of mass transfer in eccentric binaries we have developed a two-phase SPH technique. Mass transfer is important in the evolution of close binaries, and a key issue is to determine the separation at which mass transfer…
By introducing a simplified transport model of outer layers of white dwarfs we derive an analytical semi-empirical relation which constrains effective temperature-mass-radius for white dwarfs. This relation is used to classify recent data…
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to study accretion disks onto a $5\times 10^8M_{\odot}$ black hole with accretion rates varying from $\sim 250L_{Edd}/c^2$ to $1500 L_{Edd}/c^2$. We form the disks…
We present a method to characterize statistically the parameters of a detached binary sample - binary fraction, separation distribution, and mass ratio distribution - using noisy radial-velocity data with as few as two, randomly spaced,…