Related papers: Jupiter Mass Binaries and Cosmic Ray Viscosity
The star formation process in molecular clouds usually leads to the formation of multiple stellar systems, mostly binaries. Remaining disks around those stars may be located around individual stars (circumstellar disks) or around the entire…
The turbulent viscosity of convection is believed to circularize the orbits of close binary stars. When the tidal period is shorter than the turnover time of the largest eddies, turbulent viscosity is believed to be suppressed. The degree…
In this paper we propose and examine a physical mechanism which can lead to the generation of noise in the mass accretion rate of low mass X-ray binaries on time-scales comparable to the orbital period of the system. We consider modulations…
A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between $\sim10^2$ and $10^5\,\rm AU$. In the standard lore of binary physics, these would evolve as effectively single stars that remotely orbit one…
We present results from the first hydrodynamical star formation calculation to demonstrate that close binary stellar systems (separations $\lsim 10$ AU) need not be formed directly by fragmentation. Instead, a high frequency of close…
Hostile tidal forces may inhibit the formation of Jovian planets in binaries with semimajor axes of $\la$$50\au$, binaries that might be called ``close'' in this context. As an alternative to in situ planet formation, a binary can acquire a…
About 25 per cent of `hot Jupiters' (extrasolar Jovian-mass planets with close-in orbits) are actually orbiting counter to the spin direction of the star. Perturbations from a distant binary star companion can produce high inclinations, but…
Binary systems are a common site of planet formation, despite the destructive effects of the binary on the disk. While surveys of planet forming material have found diminished disk masses around medium separation ($\sim$10--100 au)…
We study the orbital evolution of wide binary stars in the solar neighborhood due to gravitational perturbations from passing stars. We include the effects of the Galactic tidal field and continue to follow the stars after they become…
Globular clusters contain many stars with surface abundance patterns indicating contributions from hydrogen burning products, as seen in the anti-correlated elemental abundances of e.g. sodium and oxygen, and magnesium and aluminium.…
Observations of galactic and extra-galactic globular clusters have shown that on average metal-rich clusters are ~3 times as likely to contain a bright X-ray source than their metal-poor counterparts. We propose that this can be explained…
The majority of stars are part of gravitationally bound stellar systems, such as binaries. Observations of protobinary systems constrain the conditions that lead to stellar multiplicity and subsequent orbital evolution. We report…
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…
Characterization of the binary fractions in star clusters is of fundamental importance for many fields in astrophysics. Observations indicate that the majority of stars are found in binary systems, while most stars with masses greater than…
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…
The formation of massive stars is one of the major unsolved problems in stellar astrophysics. However, only few if any of these are found as single stars, on average massive stars have more than one companion. Many of them are born in dense…
The mean angular momentum associated with the collision of two celestial objects moving in almost circular heliocentric orbits was studied. The results of these studies were used to develop models of the formation of binaries at the stage…
In dense stellar systems, dynamical interactions between objects lead to frequent formation of exotic stellar objects, unusual binaries, and systems of higher multiplicity. They are especially important for the formation of low mass X-ray…
The total mass of a distant star cluster is often derived from the virial theorem, using line-of-sight velocity dispersion measurements and half-light radii, under the implicit assumption that all stars are single (although it is known that…
We propose that the observed difference in the formation rates of bright low-mass X-ray binaries in metal-rich and metal-poor globular clusters can be explained by taking into account the difference in the stellar structure of main sequence…