Related papers: Stellar Exotica produced from Stellar Encounters
We know from observations that globular clusters are very efficient catalysts in forming unusual short-period binary systems or their offspring, such as low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs; neutron stars accreting matter from low-mass stellar…
Blue stragglers in globular clusters are abnormally massive stars that should have evolved off the stellar main sequence long ago. There are two known processes that can create these objects: direct stellar collisions and binary evolution.…
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…
Recent high-resolution observations of the central region of Galactic globular clusters have shown the presence of a large variety of exotic stellar objects whose formation and evolution may be strongly affected by dynamical interactions.…
In studying encounters between binaries and single stars, one is interested in three classes of events: exchanges of stars, hardening of the original binary by a third star, and the production of merged objects. We present a means for…
Dynamical interactions that occur between objects in dense stellar systems are particularly important for the question of formation of X-ray binaries. We present results of numerical simulations of 70 globular clusters with different…
Using King-Mitchie Models, we compute encounter rates between the various stellar species in the globular clusters $\omega$ Cen, and 47 Tuc. We also compute event rates for encounters between single stars and a population of primordial…
We model the dynamics of test binaries in isotropic, multi-mass models of galactic globular clusters. The evolution of binary orbits through the cluster potentials is modeled, including second order diffusion terms, and probabilities for…
Stars in globular clusters are generally believed to have all formed at the same time, early in the Galaxy's history. 'Blue stragglers' are stars massive enough that they should have evolved into white dwarfs long ago. Two possible…
The high stellar densities in the cores of globular clusters cause significant stellar interactions. These stellar interactions can produce close binary mass-transferring systems involving compact objects and their progeny, such as X-ray…
In this paper, the second of a series, we study the stellar dynamical and evolutionary processes leading to the formation of compact binaries containing neutron stars (NSs) in dense globular clusters (GCs). For this study, 70 dense clusters…
Blue stragglers are natural phenomena in star clusters. They originate through mass transfer in isolated binaries, as well as through encounters between two or more stars, in a complex interplay between stellar dynamics and stellar…
Bright, ultracompact X-ray binaries observed in dense star clusters, such as Galactic globular clusters, must have formed relatively recently, since their lifetimes as persistent bright sources are short (e.g., ~10^8 yr above 10^36 erg/s…
According to the recycling scenario, millisecond pulsars (MSPs) have evolved from low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Their orbits are expected to be circular due to tidal interactions during the binary evolution, as observed in most of the…
Blue stragglers are anomalously massive core hydrogen-burning stars that, according to the theory of single star evolution, should not exist. They are suspected to form in mass-enhancement processes, involving binary evolution or stellar…
Two blue-straggler sequences discovered in globular cluster M30 provide a strong constraint on the formation mechanisms of blue stragglers. We study the formation of the blue-straggler binaries through binary evolution, and find that binary…
Combination of high-precision photometry and spectroscopy allows the detailed study of the upper main sequence in open clusters. We are carrying out a comprehensive study of a number of clusters containing Be stars in order to evaluate the…
The stellar encounter rate Gamma has been shown to be strongly correlated with the number of X-ray binaries in clusters and also to the number of radio pulsars. However, the pulsar populations in different clusters show remarkably different…
A primary production mechanism for blue stragglers in globular clusters is thought to be collisionally-induced mergers, perhaps mediated by dynamical encounters involving binary stars. We model the formation and evolution of such blue…
Globular clusters are among the most congested stellar systems in the Universe. Internal dynamical evolution drives them toward states of high central density, while simultaneously concentrating the most massive stars and binary systems in…