Related papers: Formation and Evolution of Accreting Compact Objec…
Interacting Binaries consist of a variety of stellar objects in different stages of evolution and those containing accreting compact objects still represent a major challenge to our understanding of not only close binary evolution but also…
Accretion onto compact objects is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the astrophysics, powering some of the most luminous objects in the sky. Along with this, accretion has also a key impact on the evolution of the Universe, through…
Dynamical interactions that take place between objects in dense stellar systems lead to frequent formation of exotic stellar objects, unusual binaries, and systems of higher multiplicity. They are most important for the formation of…
This chapter reviews progress in the field of massive star formation. It focuses on evidence for accretion and current models that invoke high accretion rates. In particular it is noted that high accretion rates will cause the massive young…
Compact binaries have long been a paradigm for accretion theory. Much of our present view of how accretion occurs comes directly from the comparison of theory with observations of these sources. Since theory differs little for other objects…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Stars and planets are the fundamental objects of the Universe. Their formation processes, though related, may differ in important ways. Stars almost certainly form from gravitational collapse and probably have formed this way since the…
Current observations of double neutron stars provide us with a wealth of information that we can use to investigate their evolutionary history and the physical conditions of neutron star formation. Understanding this history and formation…
Several physical and astrophysical problems related to accretion onto black holes and neutron stars are shortly reviewed. I discuss the observed differences between these two types of compact objects in quiescent Soft X-ray Transients. Then…
Studying the physical processes occurring in the region just above the magnetic poles of strongly magnetized, accreting binary neutron stars is essential to our understanding of stellar and binary system evolution. Perhaps more importantly,…
Although during the last decade new observations and new theoretical results have brought better understanding of the physics of accretion onto compact objects, many old and several new questions and problems await answers and solutions. I…
Despite the prevalence of jets in accreting systems and their impact on the surrounding medium, the fundamental physics of how they are launched and collimated is not fully understood. Radio observations of local compact objects, including…
Thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae are explosions in accreting white dwarfs, but the exact scenario leading to these explosions is still unclear. An important step to clarify this point is to understand the behaviour of accreting white…
Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…
It is quite likely that self-gravity will play an important role in the evolution of accretion discs, in particular those around young stars, and those around supermassive black holes. We summarise, here, our current understanding of the…
What are the most important conditions and processes governing the growth of stellar-origin compact objects? The identification of compact object type as either black hole (BH) or neutron star (NS) is fundamental to understanding their…
Neutron stars are natural physical laboratories allowing us to study a plethora of phenomena in extreme conditions. In particular, these compact objects can have very strong magnetic fields with non-trivial origin and evolution. In many…
Disk accretion may be the fundamental astrophysical process. Stars and planets form through the accretion of gas in a disk. Black holes and galaxies co-evolve through efficient disk accretion onto the central supermassive black hole.…
Accreting white dwarf binaries (AWDs) comprise cataclysmic variables (CVs), symbiotics, AM CVns, and other related systems that host a primary white dwarf (WD) accreting from a main sequence or evolved companion star. AWDs are a product of…
The collapse of massive molecular clumps can produce high mass stars, but the evolution is not simply a scaled-up version of low mass star formation. Outflows and radiative effects strongly hinder the formation of massive stars via…