Related papers: Evolving neutron star+helium star systems to inter…
The recent discovery of a 2 M_sun binary millisecond pulsar (Demorest et al. 2010) has not only important consequences for the equation-of-state of nuclear matter at high densities but also raises the interesting question if the neutron…
PSR J1012+5307 is a millisecond pulsar with an extremely low-mass (ELM) white dwarf (WD) companion in an orbit of 14.5 hours. Magnetic braking (MB) plays an important role in influencing the orbital evolution of binary systems with a…
To understand the nature of supernovae and neutron star (NS) formation, as well as binary stellar evolution and their interactions, it is important to probe the distribution of NS masses. Until now, all double NS (DNS) systems have been…
Four evolutionary channels leading to the formation of wide binary millisecond pulsars are investigated. The majority of binary millisecond pulsars are found to descend from systems in which the most massive component undergoes a…
We report on five binary pulsars discovered in the Parkes multibeam Galactic plane survey. All of the pulsars are old, with characteristic ages 1-11 Gyr, and have relatively small inferred magnetic fields, 5-90e8 G. The orbital periods…
Astrophysical scenarios for the formation and evolution of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in the mass range $10^2 M_\odot \lesssim M \lesssim 10^6 M_\odot$ remain uncertain, but future ground-based gravitational-wave (GW)…
Since a large population of massive O/B stars and putative neutron stars (NSs) located in the vicinity of the Galactic center (GC), intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (IMXBs) constituted by a NS and a B-type star probably exist here. We…
Among the compact objects observed in gravitational wave merger events a few have masses in the gap between the most massive neutron stars (NSs) and least massive black holes (BHs) known. Their nature and the formation of their merging…
We have developed a new method for post-Newtonian, high-precision integration of stellar systems containing a super-massive black hole (SMBH), splitting the forces on a particle between a dominant central force and perturbations. We used…
The intermediate mass-ratio inspiral of a stellar compact remnant into an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) can produce a gravitational wave (GW) signal that is potentially detectable by current ground-based GW detectors (e.g., Advanced…
It has been suggested that besides stellar companions, substellar objects in close orbits may be able to trigger mass loss in a common envelope phase and form hot subdwarfs. In an ongoing project we search for close substellar companions…
We examine the growing class of binary millisecond pulsars known as redbacks. In these systems the pulsar's companion has a mass between 0.1 and about 0.5 solar masses in an orbital period of less than 1.5 days. All show extended radio…
With a view to understanding the formation of double neutron-stars (DNS), we investigate the late stages of evolution of helium stars with masses of 2.8 - 6.4 Msun in binary systems with a 1.4 Msun neutron-star companion. We found that mass…
The most massive galaxies in the Universe also host the largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs), with masses of $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and above. During their hierarchical assembly, these galaxies have experienced only a few major…
A summary is given of the present state of our knowledge of High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs), their formation and expected future evolution. Among the HMXB-systems that contain neutron stars, only those that have orbital periods upwards of…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses in the range $100-10^{6}$ M$_{\odot}$, are the link between stellar-mass BHs and supermassive BHs (SMBHs). They are thought to be the seeds from which SMBHs grow, which would explain the…
While it is well established that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) co-evolve with their host galaxy, it is currently less clear how lower mass black holes, so-called intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), evolve within their dwarf galaxy…
In this work, we investigate an alternative channel for the formation of fast-spinning black hole-neutron star (BHNS) binaries, in which super-Eddington accretion is expected to occur in accreting BHs during the stable mass transfer phase…
The discovery of the highly relativistic neutron star (NS) binary (in which both NS's are pulsars) not only increases the estimated merging rate for the two NS's by a large factor, but also adds the missing link in the double helium star…
(abridged) PSR J1903+0327, a millisecond pulsar in an eccentric (e = 0.44) 95-day orbit with a (~ 1Msun) companion poses a challenge to our understanding of stellar evolution in binary and multiple-star systems. Here we describe optical and…