Related papers: Observational Constraints on the Common Envelope P…
The major source of ground-based gravitational wave detectors, the inspiral and merger of comparable mass binary black holes (BBH), consists of a slow quasicircular inspiral, a merger to form a single remnant hole, and the quasinormal…
The discovery of many objects with unprecedented, amazing observational characteristics caused the last decade to be the most prolific period for the supernova research. Many of these new supernovae are transitional objects between existing…
Double black hole binaries are among the most important sources of gravitational radiation for ground-based detectors such as LIGO or VIRGO. Even if formed with lower efficiency than double neutron star binaries, they could dominate the…
A Quark-Nova (QN, the sudden transition from a neutron star into a quark star) which occurs in the second common envelope (CE) phase of a massive binary (Ouyed et al., 2015a&b), gives excellent fits to super-luminous, hydrogen-poor,…
Understanding the formation and evolution of stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) requires a thorough investigation of the key physical processes involved. While one pathway involves the isolated evolution of massive binary stars,…
Type Ia supernovae result when carbon-oxygen white dwarfs in binary systems accrete mass from companion stars, reach a critical mass, and explode. The near uniformity of their light curves makes these supernovae good standard candles for…
Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are binaries in which a compact white dwarf accretes material from a low-mass companion star. The discovery of two planets in orbit around the CV HU Aquarii opens unusual opportunities for understanding the…
In this paper I describe how our knowledge and understanding of the properties and structure of the Coma cluster of galaxies has evolved through the years, since early this century, when the first maps of the density of nebulae in the Coma…
The common envelope interaction is thought to be the gateway to all evolved compact binaries and mergers. Hydrodynamic simulations of the common envelope interaction between giant stars and their companions are restricted to the dynamical,…
We discuss the evolution of binaries with moderately high masses (about 10 - 30 solar masses), and with periods of about 3 - 300d, corresponding mostly to early Case B. These are usually thought to evolve either by reasonably conservative…
Close binary central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) must have formed through a common envelope evolution during the giant phase experienced by one of the stars. Transfer of the angular momentum from the binary system to the envelope leads…
The role of planetary nebulae as probes for the galactic chemical evolution is reviewed. Their abundances throughout the Galaxy are discussed for key elements, in particular oxygen and other alpha elements. The abundance distribution…
We present 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations of common-envelope (CE) evolution involving a 12 solar mass red supergiant donor and a 3 solar mass companion. Existing 3D simulations are predominantly adiabatic, focusing strongly on…
Quantum mechanical wave functions have phases. These phases either initial or acquired during time evolution usually do not enter the final expressions for observable physical quantities. Nevertheless in many cases the observable physical…
The common envelope (CE) phase is an important stage in binary stellar evolution. It is needed to explain many close binary stellar systems, such as cataclysmic variables, Type Ia supernova progenitors, or X-ray binaries. To form the…
Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as extracted from…
The expected distributions of eclipse-depth versus period for eclipsing binaries of different luminosities are derived from large-scale population synthesis experiments. Using the rapid Hurley et al. BSE binary evolution code, we have…
In a recent Letter, Yang et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 258701 (2012)] introduced the concept of observability transitions: the percolation-like emergence of a macroscopic observable component in graphs in which the state of a fraction of…
Binary stars produce an array of dramatic astrophysical phenomena. They allow us to probe stellar structure, nuclear physics, and gravitational wave physics. They also produce the powerful supernovae that allow us to measure the scale of…
At least one, but more likely two or more, eccentric neutron-star, carbon-oxygen white-dwarf binaries with an unrecycled pulsar have been observed. According to the standard scenario for evolving neutron stars which are recycled in common…