Related papers: Binary Evolution and the Progenitor of SN 1987A
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) correspond to the thermonuclear explosion of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (C-O WD) star in a binary system, triggered by the accretion of material from another star, or the merger/collision with a secondary WD.…
Close white dwarf binaries make up a wide variety of objects such as double white dwarf binaries, which are possible SN Ia progenitors, cataclysmic variables, super soft sources, or AM CVn stars. The evolution and formation of close white…
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are diffuse extended sources characterized by a complex morphology and a non-uniform distribution of ejecta. Such a morphology reflects pristine structures and features of the progenitor supernova (SN) and the…
A previously unpublished ultralow-dispersion spectrum of Sanduleak -69 202, the stellar progenitor of SN 1987A, is presented and the uncertain presupernova evolution of Sanduleak -69 202 is discussed.
Detailed observations of a growing number of supernovae have determined a bloom of new peculiar events. In this paper we take a short tour through the SN diversity and discuss some important, physical issues related to it. Because of the…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are fundamental to cosmology and galactic chemical evolution, yet the nature of their progenitor systems remains unresolved. Multiple evolutionary pathways, including single-degenerate, double-degenerate, and…
We present optical photometric and spectroscopic observations of the 1987A-like supernova (SN) 2009mw. Our $BVRI$ and $g'r'i'z'$ photometry covers 167 days of evolution, including the rise to the light curve maximum, and ends just after the…
One promising method to test progenitor models for Type Ia supernovae is to identify surviving companion stars in historical supernova remnants. A surviving companion will have been strongly affected by its interaction with the supernova…
Coalescence of binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) would constitute the strongest sources of gravitational waves to be observed by LISA. While the formation of binary SBHs during galaxy mergers is almost inevitable, coalescence requires…
Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are the most important standard candles for measuring the expansion history of the universe. The thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf can explain their observed properties, but neither the progenitor systems…
Some hydrogen poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) exhibit bumps in the tails of their light-curves associated with hydrogen features in their late time spectra. Here we use the explosion parameters of one such SLSN -- SN 2017gci -- to…
It is now clear that a binary formation pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of planetary nebulae, and this increased sample of known binaries means that we are now in a position to begin to constrain their influence on the…
In the single degenerate scenario for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), a white dwarf rapidly accretes hydrogen- or helium-rich material from its companion star, and appears as a supersoft X-ray source. This picture has been…
The evolution of a star of initial mass 9 M_s, and Z = 0.02 in a Close Binary System is followed in the presence of different mass companions in order to study their influence on the final evolutionary stages and, in particular, on the…
We study the complete merger of two massive stars inside a common envelope and the subsequent evolution of the merger product, a rapidly rotating massive supergiant. Three qualitatively different types of mergers have been identified and…
The explosive death of a star as a supernova is one of the most dramatic events in the Universe. Supernovae have an outsized impact on many areas of astrophysics: they are major contributors to the chemical enrichment of the cosmos and…
Blue stragglers are anomalously massive core hydrogen-burning stars that, according to the theory of single star evolution, should not exist. They are suspected to form in mass-enhancement processes, involving binary evolution or stellar…
Most massive stars experience binary interactions in their lifetimes that can alter both the surface and core structure of the stripped star with significant effects on their ultimate fate as core-collapse supernovae. However, core-collapse…
A class of supernovae (SNe) termed `SN Ic-CSM' are characterized by late-time emergence of narrow emission lines of elements formed in the oxygen core of a massive star. A popular scenario is the interaction of the SN ejecta and O-rich…
One of the most important questions regarding the progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is whether mergers of two white dwarfs can lead to explosions that reproduce observations of normal events. Here we present a fully…