Related papers: Formation and Evolution of Accreting Compact Objec…
This is a review of recent observational and theoretical developments related to accreting neutron stars and black holes in binary systems.
Core collapse of dense massive star clusters is unavoidable and this leads to the formation of massive objects, with a mass up to 1000 $\msun$ and even larger. When these objects become stars, stellar wind mass loss determines their…
We are learning much about how structure forms, in particular how clusters as nodes in the cosmic web evolve and accrete matter, and about the physical processes within these objects. In the next decade, the study of clusters will enable us…
Gas infall and accretion play a fundamental role in galaxy formation, and several processes of accretion are reviewed. In particular the cold accretion may solve to some extent the angular momentum problem in disk formation, while it is…
We model the evolution of planets with various masses and compositions. We investigate the effects of the composition and its depth dependence on the long-term evolution of the planets. The effects of opacity and stellar irradiation are…
Despite the revolution in our knowledge resulting from the detection of planets around mature stars, we know almost nothing about planets orbiting young stars because rapid rotation and active photospheres preclude detection by radial…
Extreme star formation includes star formation in starbursts and regions forming super star clusters. We survey the current problems in our understanding of the star formation process in starbursts and super star clusters - initial mass…
We discuss recent evidence for an accelerating Universe from measurements of type Ia supernovae at high redshift, and describe tests of various systematic effects such as extinction and evolution that could be biasing the cosmological…
Galaxies grow their supermassive black holes in concert with their stars, although the relationship between these major galactic components is poorly understood. Observations of the cosmic growth of stars and black holes in galaxies suffer…
Astrophysical compact objects, viz., white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, are the remnants of stellar deaths at the end of their life cycles. They are ideal testbeds for various fundamental physical processes under extreme…
The formation of supermassive stars is believed to be an essential intermediate step for the formation of the massive black hole seeds that become the supermassive black holes powering the quasars observed in the early Universe. Numerical…
We discuss the first available binary evolution models which include up-to-date rotational physics for both components, as well as angular momentum accretion and spin-orbit coupling. These models allow a self-consistent computation of the…
Plotting the mass-density of a wide range of astronomical objects as a function of their mass reveals that the vast majority of these objects fall along a ``cohesive object sequence'' that extends all the way from asteroids to the largest…
We review the recent multifrequency studies of galactic black hole binaries, aiming at revealing the underlying emission processes and physical properties in these systems. The optical and infrared observations are important for determining…
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…
Massive stars are important metal factories in the Universe. They have short and energetic lives, and many of them inevitably explode as a supernova and become a neutron star or black hole. In turn, the formation, evolution and explosive…
The majority of known Galactic black holes reside in low-mass X-ray binaries. They are rare and fascinating objects, providing unique information on strong gravity, accretion disc physics, and stellar and binary evolution. There is no doubt…
We investigate the contraction of accreting protoclusters using an extension of n-body techniques that incorporates the accretional growth of stars from the gaseous reservoir in which they are embedded. Following on from Monte Carlo studies…
Neutron stars are some of the densest manifestations of massive objects in the universe. They are ideal astrophysical laboratories for testing theories of dense matter physics and provide connections among nuclear physics, particle physics…
The role of X-ray observations for cosmological studies and conclusions is briefly explored. X-rays currently yield cosmologically interesting results on the abundances, evolution and gas content of clusters of galaxies, on the clustering…