Related papers: Stars stably accreting from substellar objects
We know that planetary systems are just as common around white dwarfs as around main sequence stars. However, self-consistently linking a planetary system across these two phases of stellar evolution through the violent giant branch poses…
In close binary systems composed of a normal, donor star and an accreting neutron star, the amount of material received by the accreting component is, so far, a real intrigue. In the literature there are available models that link the…
Accreting main-sequence stars expand significantly when the mass accretion timescale is much shorter than their thermal timescales. This occurs during mass transfer from an evolved giant star onto a main-sequence companion in a binary…
Brown dwarfs, which occupy a fuzzy gap in mass between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their origin is a topic of significant current interest and debate. Some astronomers…
Precise astrometric measurement with Gaia satellite resulted in the discovery of tens of wide binary systems consisting of a Sun-like star and an invisible component. The latter can be a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. In this…
We present a detailed dynamical analysis of the orbital stability of the BD +20 2457 system, which features planets or brown dwarfs moving on relatively eccentric orbits. We find that the system exhibits strong dynamical instability on…
We report on nine wide common proper motion systems containing late-type M, L, or T companions. We confirm six previously reported companions, and identify three new systems. The ages of these systems are determined using diagnostics for…
We present results from high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations which explore the effects of small scale clustering in star-forming regions. A large ensemble of small-N clusters with 5 stellar seeds have been modelled and the resulting…
Precise measurements of the fundamental properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are key to understanding the physics underlying their formation and evolution. While there has been great progress over the last decade in studying the…
We report the discovery of companions to 5 nearby late M dwarfs (>M5), LHS1901, LHS4009, LHS6167, LP869-26 and WT460, and we confirm that the recently discovered mid-T brown dwarf companion to SCR1845-6357 is physically bound to that star.…
We discuss the formation and evolution of systems comprised of a low-mass ($M_\star \lesssim 4 \, \rm M_\odot$) main sequence star, orbiting a $10^5-10^7 \, \rm M_\odot$ supermassive black hole with an orbital period of order $\sim$hours,…
We give a brief review over the observational evidence for close substellar companions to hot subdwarf stars. The formation of these core helium-burning objects requires huge mass loss of their red giant progenitors. It has been suggested…
Despite the recent discoveries of planets orbiting stars at all evolutionary stages, the evolution of planetary systems remains poorly understood. Studying planetary systems around red giant branch stars can reveal how main sequence…
Many white dwarf stars show signs of having accreted smaller bodies, implying that they may host planetary systems. A small number of these systems contain gaseous debris discs, visible through emission lines. We report a stable 123.4min…
White dwarfs represent the last stage of evolution of stars with mass less than about eight times that of the Sun and, like other stars, are often found in binaries. If the orbital period of the binary is short enough, energy losses from…
Deriving precise stellar ages is a challenging task. Consequently, age-dependent relations - such as the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relations of the Milky Way, or the age-rotation-activity relation of low-mass stars - are…
In close binaries mass and angular momentum can be transferred from one star to the other during Roche-lobe overflow. The efficiency of this process is not well understood and constitutes one of the largest uncertainties in binary…
Although discs of dust and gas have been observed orbiting white dwarfs, the origin of this circumstellar matter is uncertain. We hypothesize that the in-situ breakup of small bodies such as asteroids spun to fission during the giant branch…
Constraints from surveys of post common envelope binaries (PCEBs) consisting of a white dwarf plus an M-dwarf companion have led to significant progress in our understanding of the formation of close white dwarf binary stars with low-mass…
We consider the formation of dwarf carbon stars via accretion from a carbon AGB companion in light of the new 107 object sample of Downes et al. (2004). This sample is now large enough to allow good mass determination via comparison of a…