Related papers: Accretion rates in hierarchical triple systems wit…
Binary evolution plays a central role in producing rapidly rotating stars. Previous studies have shown that mass gainers in binaries can reach critical rotation after accreting only modest amounts of material, particularly during…
Accretion discs are common in binary systems, and they are often found to be misaligned with respect to the binary orbit. The gravitational torque from a companion induces nodal precession in misaligned disc orbits. We calculate whether…
We perform a suite of high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to investigate the orbital decay and mass evolution of massive black hole (MBH) pairs down to scales of ~30 pc during minor mergers of disk galaxies. Our…
The process of mass accretion onto Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) plays a fundamental role in determining the final stellar mass and setting the initial conditions for planet formation. Despite its critical role, our understanding of…
As 2 black holes bound to each other in a close binary approach merger their inspiral time becomes shorter than the characteristic inflow time of surrounding orbiting matter. Using an innovative technique in which we represent the changing…
We present the results of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the disc around the young, eccentric stellar binary HD 104237. We find that the binary clears out a large cavity in the disc, driving a significant eccentricity…
Pulsar timing arrays have recently found evidence for nanohertz gravitational waves that are consistent with being produced by a cosmological population of binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, the amplitude of this…
We introduce a set of stellar models for massive stars whose evolution has been affected by mass transfer in a binary system, at a range of metallicities. As noted by other authors, the effect of such mass transfer is frequently more than…
The formation environments of merging binary black holes remain uncertain. While hierarchical assembly in dense stellar clusters has been widely explored as an explanation for black holes exceeding the stellar-mass limit, growth through gas…
We explore an unresolved controversy in the literature about the accuracy of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) in modeling the accretion of gas onto a binary system, a problem with important applications to the evolution of…
Young stars orbiting in the gravitational potential well of forming star clusters pass through the cluster's dense molecular gas and can experience Bondi-Hoyle accretion from reservoirs outside their individual protostellar cloud cores.…
Formation models in which terrestrial bodies grow via the pairwise accretion of planetesimals have been reasonably successful at reproducing the general properties of the solar system, including small body populations. However, planetesimal…
The accretion and ejection of mass in pre-main sequence (PMS) stars are key processes in stellar evolution as they shape the stellar angular momentum transport necessary for the stars' stability. Magnetospheric accretion onto classical T…
We show that for young stars which are still accreting and for which measurements of stellar age, disc mass and accretion rate are available, nominal disc age (Disc Age = Disc Mass / Accretion Rate) is approximately equal to the stellar…
[ABRIDGED] We study supermassive black hole binary mergers driven by angular momentum loss to small-scale gas discs. Such binaries form after major galaxy mergers, but their fate is unclear since hardening through stellar scattering becomes…
Transition disc systems are young stars that appear to be on the verge of dispersing their protoplanetary discs. We explore the nature of these systems by comparing the stellar accretion rates and disc masses of transition discs and normal…
We present results of the first global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of accretion disks fed by Roche lobe overflow, including vertical stratification, in order to investigate the roles of spiral shocks, magnetorotational instability…
We present the first three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a circumbinary disk surrounding an equal mass binary. The binary maintains a fixed circular orbit of separation $a$. As in previous hydrodynamical simulations,…
The cosmological lithium problem, that is, the discrepancy between the lithium abundance predicted by the Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the one observed for the stars of the 'Spite plateau', is one of the long standing problems of modern…
Short-period massive binary stars are predicted to undergo chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE), making them prime candidates for producing binary black holes (BBHs) that may merge within the age of the Universe. Most of these binaries…