Related papers: Circumbinary Habitability Niches
We outline a mechanism that explains the observed lack of circumbinary planets (CBPs) via coupled stellar-tidal evolution of isolated binary stars. Tidal forces between low-mass, short-period binary stars on the pre-main sequence slow the…
I list the 16 planetary nebulae (PNe) known to contain close-binary nuclei, and show that the nebulae generally have axisymmetric structures, including elliptical, bipolar, or ring morphologies. The orbital periods range from 2.7 hr to 16…
The potential for hosting photosynthetic life on Earth-like planets within binary/multiple stellar systems was evaluated by modelling the levels of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) such planets receive. Combinations of M and G…
Context. In tight binary star systems, tidal interactions can significantly influence the rotational and orbital evolution of both stars, and therefore their activity evolution. This can have strong effects on the atmospheric evolution of…
The typical product of the star formation process is a binary star. Binaries have provided the first dynamical measures of the masses of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars, providing support for the calibrations of PMS evolutionary tracks.…
The habitable zone (HZ) is the circular region around a star(s) where standing bodies of water could exist on the surface of a rocky planet. Space missions employ the HZ to select promising targets for follow-up habitability assessment. The…
Very wide binaries (> 500 AU) are subject to numerous encounters with flying-by stars in the Galactic field and can be perturbated into highly eccentric orbits (e ~ 0.99). For such systems tidal interactions at close pericenter passages can…
To first approximation, a binary system conserves its angular momentum while it evolves to its state of minimum kinetic energy: circular orbit, all spins aligned, and components rotating in synchronism with the orbital motion. The pace at…
It has been suggested that there are $\sim 10^5$ black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries in our Galaxy. However, despite the effort of intensive radio search for decades, none of these binaries has been found to date. These binaries are…
Previous attempts to describe circumbinary habitable zones have been concerned with the spatial extent of the zone, calculated analytically according to the combined radiation field of both stars. By contrast to these "spatial HZs", we…
Stars are mostly found in binary and multiple systems, as at least 50% of all solar-like stars have companions - a fraction that goes up to 100% for the most massive stars. Moreover, a large fraction of them will interact in some way or…
With the discovery of hundreds of exoplanets and a potentially huge number of Earth-like planets waiting to be discovered, the conditions for their habitability have become a focal point in exoplanetary research. The classical picture of…
Stars approaching supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of galaxies can be torn apart by strong tidal forces. We study the physics of tidal disruption by a binary SMBH as a function of the binary mass ratio $q = M_2 / M_1$ and…
Massive stars are usually found in binaries, and binaries with periods less than 10 days may have a preference for near equal component masses. In this paper we investigate the evolution of these binaries all the way to contact and the…
A significant fraction of massive stars are found in multiple systems. The effect of binarity on stellar evolution is poorly constrained. In particular, the role of tides and mass transfer on surface chemical abundances is not constrained…
We investigate the hypothesis that the size of the habitable zone around hardened binaries in dense star-forming regions increases. Our results indicate that this hypothesis is essentially incorrect. Although certain binary star…
Deriving the distribution of binary parameters for a particular class of stars over the full range of orbital separations usually requires the combination of results from many different observing techniques (radial velocities,…
Binaries have played a crucial role many times in the history of modern astronomy and are doing so again in the rapidly evolving exploration of the Kuiper Belt. The large fraction of transneptunian objects that are binary or multiple, 48…
The aim of my dissertation is to investigate habitability in extra-Solar Systems. Most of the time, only planets are considered as possible places where extraterrestrial life can emerge and evolve, however, their moons could be inhabited,…
Recent detections of potentially habitable exoplanets around sunlike stars demand increased exploration of the physical conditions that can sustain life, by whatever methods available. Insight into these conditions can be gained by…