Related papers: Exploring the binary origin of B and Be rapid rota…
Nearby companions alter the evolution of massive stars in binary systems. Using a sample of Galactic massive stars in nearby young clusters, we simultaneously measure all intrinsic binary characteristics relevant to quantify the frequency…
The effects which star cluster concentration and binarity have on observable parameters, that characterise the dynamical state of a population of stars after their birth aggregate dissolves, are investigated. To this end, the correlations…
Close stellar binaries are prone to undergo a phase of stable mass transfer in which a star loses mass to its companion. Assuming that the donor star loses mass along the instantaneous interstellar axis, we derive the orbit-averaged…
The evolution and fate of massive stars are thought to be affected by rotationally induced internal mixing. The surface boron abundance is a sensitive tracer of this in early B-type main sequence stars. We test current stellar evolution…
Massive stars are often born in triples, where gravitational dynamics and stellar interactions play a crucial role in shaping their evolution. One such pathway includes the merger of the inner binary, transforming the system to a binary…
Recent observations of a small sample of repeating Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have revealed a periodicity in their bursting activity that may be suggestive of a binary origin for the modulation. We set out to explore the scenario where a…
Two recent observing campaigns provide us with moderate dispersion spectra of more than 230 cluster and 370 field B stars. Combining them and the spectra of the B stars from our previous investigations ($\sim$430 cluster and $\sim$100 field…
The red giant branch (RGB) of globular clusters (GCs) is home to some exotic stars, which may provide clues on the formation of multiple stellar populations in GCs. It is well known that binary interactions are responsible for many exotic…
Tidal evolution of eccentric binary systems containing at least one massive main-sequence (MS) star plays an important role in the formation scenarios of merging compact-object binaries. The dominant dissipation mechanism in such systems…
The impact of stellar rotation on the morphology of star cluster colour-magnitude diagrams is widely acknowledged. However, the physics driving the distribution of the equatorial rotation velocities of main-sequence turn-off (MSTO) stars is…
The origin of hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) is still unclear. About half of the known sdBs are in close binary systems for which common envelope ejection is the most likely formation channel. Little is known about this dynamic phase of binary…
Several stars detected moving at velocities near to or exceeding the Galactic escape speed likely originated in the Milky Way disc. We quantitatively explore the `binary supernova scenario' hypothesis, wherein these `hyper-runaway' stars…
Rotational mixing in massive stars is a widely applied concept, with far reaching consequences for stellar evolution. Nitrogen surface abundances for a large and homogeneous sample of massive B-type stars in the LMC were obtained by the…
We discuss how rotation and binary interactions may be related to the diversity of type Ibc supernovae and long gamma-ray bursts. After presenting recent evolutionary models of massive single and binary stars including rotation, the…
The fraction of stars in binary systems within star clusters is important for their evolution, but what proportion of binaries form by dynamical processes after initial stellar accretion remains unknown. In previous work, we showed that…
The light curves and spectra of many Type I and Type II supernovae (SNe) are heavily influenced by the interaction of the SN ejecta with circumstellar material (CSM) surrounding the progenitor star. The observed diversity shows that many…
Many of the short-lived radioactive nuclei that were present in the early Solar System can be produced in massive stars. In the first paper in this series (Brinkman et al. 2019), we focused on the production of $^{26}$Al in massive…
The recent sample of 21 detached eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud (Harries et al. 2003, Hilditch et al. 2005) provides a valuable test of the binary mass function for massive stars. We show that 50% of detached binaries have…
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 majority of core-collapse supernova (CCSN) progenitors are massive stars in multiple systems, and their evolution and final fate are affected by interactions with their companions. These interactions can explain the presence of…