Related papers: Black widow evolution: magnetic braking by an abla…
We show that a black-hole binary with an external companion can undergo Lidov-Kozai cycles that cause a close pericenter passage, leading to a rapid merger due to gravitational-wave emission. This scenario occurs most often for systems in…
Time-domain analysis of an archival XMM-Newton observation unveiled a very unusual variability pattern in the soft X-ray emission of PSR J1311-3430, a black widow millisecond pulsar in a tight binary (P_B=93.8 min) with a very low-mass…
The age of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has begun, and black hole (BH) mergers detected by LIGO are providing novel constraints on massive star evolution. A major uncertainty in stellar theory is the angular momentum (AM) transport…
In low-mass binary systems, mass transfer is likely to occur via a slow and dense stellar wind when one of the stars is in the AGB phase. Observations show that many binaries that have undergone AGB mass transfer have orbital periods of…
We report on XMM-Newton observations of the Black Widow pulsar, PSR B1957+20. The pulsar's X-ray emission is non-thermal and best modeled with a single powerlaw spectrum of photon index 2.03^{+0.51}_{-0.36}. No coherent X-ray pulsations at…
The spin-down power of the white dwarf in the close binary AE Aquarii significantly exceeds the bolometric luminosity of the system. The interpretation of this phenomenon in terms of the gravitational-wave emitter mechanism has been…
Observational indications of wind-mass transfer from an evolved giant to its distant white dwarf (WD) companion in symbiotic binaries are rare. Here, we present a way to examine the neutral wind from the giant in symbiotic binaries, which…
Recent investigations on the delay time of type Ia supernovae have set useful constraints on the progenitors of type Ia supernovae. Here we have calculated the evolution of close binaries consisting of a white dwarf and a main-sequence or…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are mainly characterised by their spin periods, B-fields and masses - quantities which are largely affected by previous interactions with a companion star in a binary system. In this paper, we investigate the…
We present timing solutions for eight binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) discovered by searching unidentified Fermi-LAT source positions with the 327 MHz receiver of the Arecibo 305-m radio telescope. Five of the pulsars are "spiders" with…
Approximately $0.2 \pm 0.2$ of white dwarfs (WDs) show signs of pollution by metals, which is likely due to the accretion of tidally disrupted planetary material. Models invoking planet-planet interactions after WD formation generally…
We conduct numerical simulations of multiple nova eruptions in detached, widely separated symbiotic systems that include an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) companion to investigate the impact of white dwarf (WD) mass and binary separation on…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are a missing link in black hole demographics, with only tentative observational evidence to date. Dense stellar clusters such as IRS 13E near the Galactic Center are promising IMBH hosts, where…
The population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration offers a window into the cosmic evolution of compact binaries and their formation. We employ the semi-analytic population-synthesis code…
We examine the evolution of low-mass star and brown dwarf eclipsing binaries. These objects are rapid rotators and are believed to shelter large magnetic fields. We suggest that reduced convective efficiency, due to fast rotation and large…
We report the discovery of three edge-on binaries with white dwarf companions that gravitationally magnify (instead of eclipsing) the light of their stellar primaries, as revealed by a systematic search for pulses with long periods in the…
We study the dynamical effects of gravitational focusing by a binary companion on winds from late-type stars. In particular, we investigate the mass transfer and formation of accretion disks around the secondary in detached systems…
Using the 1.3m and 2.4m telescopes of the MDM Observatory, we identified the close companions of two eclipsing millisecond radio pulsars discovered by the Green Bank Telescope in searches of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope sources, and…
We have found a system listed in the Kepler Binary Catalog (3.273 day period; Prsa et al. 2010) that we have determined is comprised of a low-mass, thermally-bloated, hot white dwarf orbiting an A star of about 2.3 solar masses. In this…
Compact binary systems emitting gravitational waves (GWs) can exhibit orbital eccentricity, along with generic spin orientations, leading to the precession of the orbital angular momentum, individual spins, and the orbital plane. While…