Related papers: Circumbinary Habitability Niches
The discovery of binaries in each of the major populations of minor bodies in the solar system is propelling a rapid growth of heretofore unattainable physical information. The availability of mass and density constraints for minor bodies…
Binary and multiple systems constitute more than half of the total stellar population in the Solar neighborhood (Kiseleva-Eggleton and Eggleton 2001). Their frequent occurrence as well as the fact that more than 70 (Schneider et al. 2011)…
This paper uses statistical and $N$-body methods to explore a new mechanism to form binary stars with extremely large separations ($> 0.1\,{\rm pc}$), whose origin is poorly understood. Here, ultra-wide binaries arise via chance entrapment…
Changes in planetary obliquity, or axial tilt, influence the climates on Earth-like planets. In the solar system, the Earth's obliquity is stabilized due to interactions with our moon and the resulting {small amplitude variations…
Exoplanet detection in the past decade by efforts including NASA's Kepler and TESS missions has discovered many worlds that differ substantially from planets in our own Solar System, including more than 150 exoplanets orbiting binary or…
Given the considerable percentage of stars that are members of binaries or stellar multiples in the Solar neighborhood, it is expected that many of these binaries host planets, possibly even habitable ones. The discovery of a terrestrial…
Recent radial velocity observations have indicated that Jovian-type planets can exist in moderately close binary star systems. Numerical simulations of the dynamical stability of terrestrial-class planets in such environments have shown…
Tidal interactions in close stellar binaries are central to their orbital and rotational evolution, making observational tests of theoretical predictions essential for our understanding of the evolution of these, as well as close…
Stellar activity and planetary atmospheric properties have the potential to strongly influence habitability. To date, neither have been adequately studied in the multiverse context, so there has been no assessment of how these effects…
So far, more than 130 extrasolar planets have been found in multiple stellar systems. Dynamical simulations show that the outcome of the planetary formation process can lead to different planetary architectures (i.e. location, size, mass,…
Rotational mixing is a very important but uncertain process in the evolution of massive stars. We propose to use close binaries to test its efficiency. Based on rotating single stellar models we predict nitrogen surface enhancements for…
Surface magnetic fields have been detected in 5 to 10% of isolated massive stars, hosting outer radiative envelopes. They are often thought to have a fossil origin, resulting from the stellar formation phase. Yet, magnetic massive stars are…
We investigate interactions of stellar binaries in galactic nuclear clusters with a massive black hole (MBH). We consider binaries on highly eccentric orbits around the MBH that change due to random gravitational interactions with other…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
Planets that revolve around a binary pair of stars are known as circumbinary planets. The orbital motion of the stars around their center of mass causes a periodic variation in the total instellation incident upon a circumbinary planet.…
"Hard" massive black hole (MBH) binaries embedded in steep stellar cusps can shrink via three-body slingshot interactions. We show that this process will inevitably be accompanied by a burst of stellar tidal disruptions, at a rate that can…
Of the 14 transiting planets that have been detected orbiting eclipsing binaries ('circumbinary planets'), none have been detected with stellar binary orbital periods shorter than 7 days, despite such binaries existing in abundance. The…
Many exoplanets are discovered in binary star systems in internal or in circumbinary orbits. Whether the planet can be habitable or not depends on the possibility to maintain liquid water on its surface, and therefore on the luminosity of…
Most of massive stars form in binary or higher-order systems in clumpy, sub-structured clusters. In the very first phases of their life, these stars are expected to interact with the surrounding environment, before being released to the…
Standard definitions of habitability assume that life requires the presence of planetary gravity wells to stabilize liquid water and regulate surface temperature. Here the consequences of relaxing this assumption are evaluated. Temperature,…