Related papers: Formation and Evolution of Compact Stellar X-ray S…
Today's sensitive, high-resolution X-ray observations allow the study of populations of X-ray sources, in the luminosity range of Galactic X-ray binaries, in galaxies as distant as 20-30 Mpc. The traditional astronomical tools of…
Results are presented on component masses and system angular momenta for over a hundred low-temperature contact binaries. It is found that the secondary components in close binary systems are very similar in mass. Our observational evidence…
We give a global analysis of mass transfer variations in low-mass X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables whose evolution is driven by the nuclear expansion of the secondary star. We show that limit cycles caused by irradiation of the…
Three-body effects greatly complicate stellar evolution. We model the effects of encounters of binaries with single stars, based on parameters chosen from conditions prevalent in the cores of globular clusters. For our three-body…
Low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) have been studied in the Galaxy since the beginning of X-ray astronomy. A lot has been learned about these bright X-ray sources, but significant questions are still open. These questions are related to the…
We show that stable disk accretion should be very rare among low-mass X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables whose evolution is driven by the nuclear expansion of the secondary star on the first giant branch. Stable accretion is confined…
Gravitational wave detectors are observing compact object mergers from increasingly far distances, revealing the redshift evolution of the binary black hole (BBH) -- and soon the black hole-neutron star (BHNS) and binary neutron star (BNS)…
Most massive stars are born in binaries close enough for mass transfer episodes. These modify the appearance, structure, and future evolution of both stars. We compute the evolution of a 100-day period binary consisting initially of a 25 M…
Accreting compact objects are crucial to understand several important astrophysical phenomena such as Type Ia supernovae, gravitational waves, or X-ray and $\gamma$-ray bursts. In addition, they are natural laboratories to infer fundamental…
This contribution is focused on the role of cool giants in symbiotic binaries. Especially, we pay attention to their mass-loss rates and the wind mass-transfer onto their compact accretors.
Most massive stars are born in binary or higher-order multiple systems and exchange mass with a companion during their lives. In particular, the progenitors of a large fraction of compact object mergers, and Galactic neutron stars (NSs) and…
We consider evolutionary models for the population of short-period (<10 hr) low-mass black-hole binaries (LMBHB) and compare them with observations of soft X-ray transients (SXT). Evolution of LMBHB is determined by nuclear evolution of the…
The existence of millisecond pulsars with planet-mass companions (Bailes et al., 2011) in close orbits is challenging from the stellar evolution point of view. We calculate in detail the evolution of binary systems self-consistently,…
Gravitational-wave detections are enabling measurements of the rate of coalescences of binaries composed of two compact objects -- neutron stars and/or black holes. The coalescence rate of binaries containing neutron stars is further…
We construct evolutionary tracks for massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) embedded in a surrounding distribution of stars. The dynamics of the binary is evolved by taking into account the erosion of the central stellar cusp bound to the…
Planetary nebulae are traditionally considered to represent the final evolutionary stage of all intermediate-mass stars ($\sim$0.7-8Msol). Recent evidence seems to contradict this picture. In particular, since the launch of the Hubble Space…
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…
X-ray binaries with black hole (BH) accretors and massive star donors at short orbital periods of a few days can evolve into close binary BH systems (BBH) that merge within the Hubble time through stable mass transfer evolution. From…
Among the extrasolar planetary systems about 30 are located in a stellar binary orbiting one of the stars, preferably the more massive primary. The dynamical influence of the second companion alters firstly the orbital elements of the…
A small group of X-ray binaries currently provides the best evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black holes. These objects are interacting binary systems where the X-rays arise from accretion of material onto a compact object (i.e.…