Related papers: Circumbinary Habitability Niches
The evolution of main sequence binaries that reside in the Galactic Centre can be heavily influenced by the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Due to these perturbative effects, the stellar binaries in dense environments are likely to…
The dominant mechanism for generating free-floating planets has so far remained elusive. One suggested mechanism is that planets are ejected from planetary systems due to planet-planet interactions. However, instability around a single star…
Abundance anomalies observed in globular cluster stars indicate pollution with material processed by hydrogen burning. Two main sources have been suggested: asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and massive stars rotating near the break-up…
The discovery of transiting circumbinary planets by the Kepler mission suggests that planets can form efficiently around binary stars. None of the stellar binaries currently known to host planets has a period shorter than 7 days, despite…
Globular clusters cores harbour many low-mass X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, and millisecond pulsar binaries which are likely to have been formed via the process of tidal capture. Tidal capture binaries were originally thought to be…
Habitability is usually defined as the requirement for a terrestrial planet's atmosphere to sustain liquid water. This definition can be complemented by the dynamical requirement that other planets in the system do not gravitationally…
Black hole-neutron star (BHNS) binaries are important sources of gravitational waves for second-generation interferometers, and BHNS mergers are also a proposed engine for short, hard gamma-ray bursts. The behavior of both the spacetime…
We present results from the first hydrodynamical star formation calculation to demonstrate that close binary stellar systems (separations $\lsim 10$ AU) need not be formed directly by fragmentation. Instead, a high frequency of close…
We present a rapid binary evolution algorithm that enables modelling of even the most complex binary systems. In addition to all aspects of single star evolution, features such as mass transfer, mass accretion, common-envelope evolution,…
In this paper, we investigate whether hypothetical Earth-like planets have high probability of remaining on stable orbits inside the habitable zones around the stars A and B of {\alpha} Centauri, for lengths of time compatible with the…
In Paper I, we followed the evolution of binary stars as they orbited near the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic center, noting the cases in which the two stars would come close enough together to collide. In this paper we…
A survey of currently known extrasolar planets indicates that close to 20% of their hosting stars are members of binary systems. While the majority of these binaries are wide (i.e., with separations between 250 and 6500 AU), the detection…
Binary black holes (BBHs) appear to be widespread and are able to merge through the emission of gravitational waves, as recently illustrated by LIGO. The spin of the BBHs is one of the parameters that LIGO can infer from the gravitational…
Although planets have been found orbiting binary systems, whether they can survive binary interactions is debated. While the tightest-orbit binaries should host the most dynamically stable and long-lived circumbinary planetary systems, they…
Globular clusters contain many stars with surface abundance patterns indicating contributions from hydrogen burning products, as seen in the anti-correlated elemental abundances of e.g. sodium and oxygen, and magnesium and aluminium.…
The detection of a subsolar object in a compact binary merger is regarded as one of the most compelling signatures of a population of primordial black holes (PBHs). We critically examine whether such systems can be distinguished from…
Binary coalescences are known sources of gravitational waves (GWs) and they encompass combinations of black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). Here we show that when BHs are embedded in magnetic fields ($B$s) larger than approximately…
With a fleet of exploratory space missions on the horizon, the study of target specific biospheres is crucial for accurately determining the probability of the existence of microbial life on various planetary bodies and prioritising targets…
Planets in the "Habitable Zones" around M-type stars are important targets for characterization in future observations. Due to tidal-locking in synchronous spin-orbit rotations, the planets tend to have a hot dayside and a cold nightside.…
A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between $\sim10^2$ and $10^5\,\rm AU$. In the standard lore of binary physics, these would evolve as effectively single stars that remotely orbit one…