Related papers: Mass loss through the L2 Lagrange point - Applicat…
Stellar fundamental properties (masses, radii, effective temperatures) can be extracted from observations of eclipsing binary systems with remarkable precision, often better than 2%. Such precise measurements afford us the opportunity to…
Most massive stars are believed to be born in close binary systems where they can exchange mass, which impacts the evolution of both binary components. Their evolution is of great interest in the search for the progenitors of gravitational…
Eruptive mass loss in massive stars is known to occur, but the mechanism(s) are not yet well-understood. One proposed physical explanation appeals to opacity-driven super-Eddington luminosities in stellar envelopes. Here, we present a 1D…
A massive black hole (MBH) consumes stars whose orbits evolve into the small phase-space volume of unstable orbits, the "loss-cone", which take them directly into the MBH, or close enough to interact strongly with it. The resulting…
Extrasolar planets and belts of debris orbiting post-main-sequence single stars may become unbound as the evolving star loses mass. In multiple star systems, the presence or co-evolution of the additional stars can significantly complicate…
Scattering events around the center of massive galaxies will occasionally toss a stellar-mass compact object into an orbit around the massive black hole at the center, beginning an extreme mass ratio inspiral. The early stages of such a…
Although mass transfer (MT) has been studied primarily in circular binaries, observations show that it also occurs in eccentric systems. We investigate orbital evolution during nonconservative MT in eccentric orbits, a process especially…
I review the process of mass transfer in a binary system through a stellar wind, with an emphasis on systems containing a red giant. I show how wind accretion in a binary system is different from the usually assumed Bondi-Hoyle…
Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), i.e. binary systems comprised by a compact stellar-mass object orbiting a massive black hole, are expected to be among the primary gravitational wave (GW) sources for the forthcoming LISA mission. The…
Rapid mass transfer in a binary system can drive the accreting star out of thermal equilibrium, causing it to expand. This can lead to a contact system, strong mass loss from the system and possibly merging of the two stars. In low…
Mounting discoveries of extrasolar planets orbiting post-main sequence stars motivate studies aimed at understanding the fate of these planets. In the traditional "adiabatic" approximation, a secondary's eccentricity remains constant during…
We discuss two mechanisms that could result in an enhancement of the mass transfer rate during outbursts of dwarf novae and soft X-ray transients: the hot outer disc rim itself could heat the L1 point and scattered radiation by optically…
We consider the dynamical evolution of two planets orbiting in the vicinity of a first order mean motion reso- nance while simultaneously undergoing eccentricity damping and convergent migration. Following Goldreich & Schlichting (2014), we…
It is known that massive black holes (MBHs) of $10^{5-7}\,M_\odot$ could capture small compact objects to form extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs). Such systems emit gravitational waves (GWs) in the band of the Laser Interferometer Space…
A large fraction of black hole low-mass X-ray binaries (BHLMXBs) are in short period orbits, which require strong orbital angular momentum loss during the previous evolutionary stage. Ivanova (2006) put forward the possibility that some of…
Stars on eccentric orbits around a massive black hole (MBH) emit bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) at periapse. Such events may be directly resolvable in the Galactic centre. However, if the star does not spiral in, the emitted GWs are…
The theoretical basis for the energy carried away by gravitational waves that an isolated gravitating system emits was first formulated by Hermann Bondi during the 1960s. Recent findings from looking at distant supernovae revealed that the…
X-ray binaries with black hole (BH) accretors and massive star donors at short orbital periods of a few days can evolve into close binary BH systems (BBH) that merge within the Hubble time through stable mass transfer evolution. From…
Massive stars lose a significant fraction of mass during their evolution. However, the corresponding mass-loss rates are rather uncertain. To improve this, we calculated global line-driven wind models for Galactic B supergiants. Our models…
The rapid rotation of Be stars is supposed to mainly originate from binary evolution. In recent years, more and more Be stars with helium (He) star companions have been discovered, which provides a significant opportunity to study binary…