Related papers: The explosive life of massive binaries
Massive binary evolution models are needed to predict massive star populations in star forming galaxies, the supernova diversity, and the number and properties of gravitational wave sources. Such models are often computed using so called…
Classical Cepheid variable stars provide a unique probe to binary evolution in intermediate-mass stars over the course of several tens to hundreds of Myr. We studied the binary and multiple properties of Cepheids, assuming that all mid-B…
In studying encounters between binaries and single stars, one is interested in three classes of events: exchanges of stars, hardening of the original binary by a third star, and the production of merged objects. We present a means for…
In galactic centers, stars and binaries can be injected into low-angular-momentum orbits, resulting in close encounters with the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Previous works have shown that under different conditions, such close…
Knowledge of the binary population in stellar groupings provides important information about the outcome of the star forming process in different environments. Binarity is also a key ingredient in stellar population studies and is a…
The light curves and spectra of many Type I and Type II supernovae (SNe) are heavily influenced by the interaction of the SN ejecta with circumstellar material (CSM) surrounding the progenitor star. The observed diversity shows that many…
A large population of fragile, wide (> 1000 AU) binary systems exists in the Galactic field and halo. These wide binary stars cannot be primordial because of the high stellar density in star forming regions, while formation by capture in…
Hot subdwarfs are considered to be the compact helium cores of red giants, which lost almost their entire hydrogen envelope. What causes this enormous mass loss is still unclear. Binary interactions are invoked and a significant fraction of…
We study the circumstances under which first collisions occur in young and dense star clusters. The initial conditions for our direct $N$-body simulations are chosen such that the clusters experience core collapse within a few million…
Over the last decades, numerous wide (>1000 AU) binaries have been discovered in the Galactic field and halo. The origin of these wide binaries cannot be explained by star formation or by dynamical interactions in the Galactic field. We…
We perform smoothed-particle hydrodynamical simulations of the explosion of a helium star in a close binary system, and study the effects of the explosion on the companion star as well as the effect of the presence of the companion on the…
We compare our latest single and binary stellar model results from the Cambridge STARS code to several sets of observations. We examine four stellar population ratios, the number of blue to red supergiants, the number of Wolf-Rayet stars to…
Although the association of gamma-ray bursts with massive stellar death is on firm footing, the nature of the progenitor system and the key ingredients required for a massive star to produce a gamma-ray burst remain open questions. Here, we…
We compute and present the distribution in mass of single and binary neutron stars, strange stars, and black holes. The calculations were performed using a stellar population synthesis code. We follow evolution of massive single stars as…
The recent gravitational wave measurements have demonstrated the existence of stellar mass black hole binaries. It is essential for our understanding of massive star evolution to identify the contribution of binary evolution to the…
The INTEGRAL satellite has revealed a major population of supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries in our Galaxy, revolutionizing our understanding of binary systems and their evolution. This population, constituted of a compact object orbiting…
This paper reviews our knowledge on binary central stars of planetary nebulae and presents some personal opinions regarding their evolution. Three types of interactions are distinguished: type I, where the binary companion induces the mass…
Following the collapse of their cores, some of the massive binary stars that populate our Universe are expected to form merging binaries composed of black holes and neutron stars. Gravitational-wave observations of the resulting compact…
The effects of binaries on population studies of stars and stellar phenomena have been investigated over the past 3 decades by many research groups. Here we will focus mainly on the work that has been done recently in Brussels and we will…
Almost all massive stars have bound stellar companions, existing in binaries or higher-order multiples. While binarity is theorized to be an essential feature of how massive stars form, essentially all information about such properties is…