Related papers: Observational constraints on massive binaries
Massive stars feature highly energetic stellar winds that interact whenever two such stars are bound in a binary system. The signatures of these interactions are nowadays found over a wide range of wavelengths, including the radio domain,…
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 presence of a nearby companion alters the evolution of massive stars in binary systems, leading to phenomena such as stellar mergers, X-ray binaries and gamma-ray bursts. Unambiguous constraints on the fraction of massive stars affected…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
The contact phase represents a crossroad in the evolution of massive binary stars. Depending on the internal physics, the predicted end products can vary greatly including various exotic objects such as Be stars, magnetic massive stars,…
Binary stars are dynamical systems formed by two stars that are physically bound by the gravitational force. Binary stars are privileged laboratories, allowing one to measure the fundamental properties of stars but also potentially changing…
Stellar models of massive single stars are still plagued by major uncertainties. Testing and calibrating against observations is essential for their reliability. For this purpose one preferably uses observed stars that have never…
At high metallicity, a majority of massive stars have at least one close stellar companion. The evolution of such binaries is subject to strong interaction processes, heavily impacting the characteristics of their life-ending supernova and…
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…
With the advent of large-collecting-area instruments, the number of objects that can be reached by optical long-baseline interferometry is steadily increasing. We present here a few results on massive binary stars, showing the interest of…
In the present paper we discuss a selection of facts and questions related to observations and evolutionary calculations of massive single stars and massive stars in interacting binaries. We focus on the surface chemical abundances, the…
We report on recent progress in our theoretical understanding of X-ray binaries, which has largely been driven by new observations, and illustrate the interplay between theory and observations considering as examples intermediate-mass X-ray…
Binaries are excellent astrophysical laboratories that provide us with direct measurements of fundamental stellar parameters. Compared to single isolated star, multiplicity induces new processes, offering the opportunity to confront our…
Massive stars are among the most important objects in the Universe and many (most?) of them are formed in binaries. A selection of observational and theoretical facts that illustrate the importance of binaries and the evolution of massive…
Binary stars are as common as single stars. Binary stars are of immense importance to astrophysicists because that they allow us to determine the masses of the stars independent of their distances. They are the cornerstone of the…
Massive stars are essential to understand a variety of branches of astronomy including galaxy and star cluster evolution, nucleosynthesis and supernovae, pulsars and black holes. It has become evident that massive star evolution is very…
Accurate determinations of masses and radii in binary stars, along with estimates of the effective temperatures, metallicities, and other properties, have long been used to test models of stellar evolution. As might be expected,…
Statistics of orbital parameters of binary stars as well as statistics of their physical characteristics bear traces of star formation history. However, statistical investigations of binaries are complicated by lacking or incomplete…
In a high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) a massive star interacts with a neutron-star or black-hole companion in various ways. The gravitational interaction enables the measurement of fundamental parameters such as the mass of both binary…
Stars are mostly found in binary and multiple systems, as at least 50% of all solar-like stars have companions - a fraction that goes up to 100% for the most massive stars. Moreover, a large fraction of them will interact in some way or…