Related papers: Post-common-envelope binary stars, radiative levit…
Until very recently the physical mechanism driving oscillations in $\beta$~Cep and other early type stars has been a mystery. The breakthrough came with the publication of new OPAL and OP opacity data. Model calculations with the new…
The common envelope phase of binary star evolution plays a central role in many evolutionary pathways leading to the formation of compact objects in short period systems. Using three dimensional hydrodynamical computations, we review the…
We review three main results of our recent study: We show that a proper treatment of the tidal interaction prior to the onset of the common envelope (CE) leads to an enhance mass loss. This might increase the survivability of planets and…
The detailed composition of most metal-poor halo stars has been found to be very uniform. However, a fraction of 20-70% (increasing with decreasing metallicity) exhibit dramatic enhancements in their abundances of carbon - the so-called…
Common-envelope evolution (CEE) is among the most uncertain phases in binary evolution. To empirically constrain CEE, we construct a uniformly selected sample of eclipsing post--common-envelope binaries (PCEBs). Starting from an unresolved…
In order to explain the spectroscopic observations of most of the galaxies in intermediate redshift clusters, bursts of star formation superimposed to the traditional scenario of galactic evolution are needed. The analysis of spectral lines…
After the initial fast spiral-in phase experienced by a common-envelope binary, the system may enter a slow, self-regulated phase, possibly lasting 100s of years, in which all the energy released by orbital decay can be efficiently…
Almost all massive stars explode as supernovae and form a black hole or neutron star. The remnant mass and the impact of the chemical yield on subsequent star formation and galactic evolution strongly depend on the internal physics of the…
We present new results of a stability analysis of realistic models of post-extreme horizontal branch stars. We find that g-mode instabilities develop in some of these models as a result of a potent epsilon-mechanism associated with the…
The formation of subdwarf B (sdB) stars is not well understood within the current framework of stellar single and binary evolution. In this study, we focus on the formation and evolution of the pulsating sdB star in the very short-period…
Evidence from the analysis of eclipsing binary systems revealed that late-type stars are larger and cooler than predicted by models, and that this is probably caused by stellar magnetic activity. In this work, we revisit this problem taking…
While the first binary post-AGB stars were serendipitously discovered, the distinct characteristics of their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) allowed us to launch a more systematic search for binaries. We selected post-AGB objects which…
Excitation of radial oscillations in population I (X=0.7, Z=0.02) red supergiants is investigated using the solution of the equations of radiation hydrodynamics and turbulent convection. The core helium burning stars with masses 8M_odot <=…
The current generation of millimeter interferometers have revealed a population of compact (r <~ 0.1 pc), massive (M ~ 100 Msun) gas cores that are the likely progenitors of massive stars. I review models for the evolution of these objects…
The discovery of $\beta$ Cephei stars in low metallicity environments, as well as the difficulty in theoretically explaining the excitation of the pulsation modes observed in some $\beta$ Cephei and hybrid SPB-$\beta$ Cephei pulsators,…
Stellar evolution modelling is fundamental to many areas of astrophysics including stellar populations in both nearby and distant galaxies. It is heavily influenced by chemical composition. Observations of distant galaxies and…
We propose a common envelope evolution (CEE) scenario where a red giant branch (RGB) star engulfs a planet during its core helium flash to explain the puzzling system WD 1856+534 where a planet orbits a white dwarf (WD) of mass 0.52Mo with…
By analysing and modelling the change in the abundance ratio of $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C and $^{16}$O/$^{17}$O on the surface of the lower mass star of a binary during the common-envelope (CE) phase of evolution, we propose a simple observational…
We study the stability properties of isolated star forming dwarf galaxies which undergo dynamically driven starbursts induced by stellar feedback. Here we focus on the impact of the adopted ISM model, i.e. either a diffuse or a clumpy ISM.…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are hypothetical pseudoscalar bosons, natural in extensions of the Standard Model. Their interactions with ordinary matter and radiation are suppressed, making it challenging to detect them in laboratory…