Related papers: Mass transfer and the period decrease in RXJ0806.3…
The detected Gaia systems hosting compact objects challenge standard models of binary star evolution. In particular, if the observed black hole (BH) systems evolved in isolation, they are expected to have undergone a mass transfer phase.…
Chandra observations of elliptical galaxies have revealed large numbers of Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) accreting at rates above 10^-9 solar masses per year. One scenario which generates this transfer rate from an old stellar population…
We report the discovery of three ultracompact binary white dwarf systems hosting accretion disks, with orbital periods of 7.95, 8.68, and 13.15 minutes. This significantly augments the population of mass-transferring binaries at the…
The orbital period of V Sge is decreasing at a rate which increased from dP/dt=-(4.11\pm 0.33)\times 10^{-10} in 1962 to -(5.44\pm 0.61)\times 10^{-10} in 2022. This implies that the mass trahsfer from the secondary component is…
We explore possible systematic errors in the mass measurements of stellar mass black holes. We find that significant errors can arise from the assumption of zero or constant emission from the accretion flow, which is commonly used when…
The X-ray source HLX-1 near the spiral galaxy ESO 243-49 is currently the best intermediate-mass black hole candidate. It has a peak bolometric luminosity of $10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$, which implies a mass inflow rate of $\sim10^{-4}$ MSun…
Mass transfer in stellar binaries has been well studied in most stellar mass ranges, with the notable exception of ultracool stars and substellar brown dwarfs. We report the discovery of ZTF J1239+8347 with the Zwicky Transient Facility…
An evolutionary scenario to explain the transient nature and short total duration of the X-ray burst of SAX J1808.4 -- 3658 is proposed. An optical companion of the neutron star (a ``turn-off'' Main - Sequence star) fills its Roche lobe at…
We examine a number of evolutionary scenarios for the recently discovered class of accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars in ultracompact binaries, including XTE J0929-314 and XTE J1751-305, with orbital periods of 43.6 and 42.4…
Context. Wolf-Rayet (WR) and O-star binaries can be the progenitors of X-ray binaries and double black hole binaries. Their formation is not yet fully understood, however. For 21 observed WR+O systems, we aim to infer whether the mass…
We carried out optical observations of the field of the X-ray pulsator RXJ0806.3+1527. A blue V=21.1 star was found to be the only object consistent with the X-ray position. VLT FORS spectra revealed a blue continuum with no intrinsic…
Three periodically variable stars have recently been discovered (V407 Vul, P=9.5 min; ES Cet, P=10.3 min; RX J0806.3+1527, P=5.3 min) with properties that suggest that their photometric periods are also their orbital periods, making them…
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…
RXJ 0501.7-0359 is a new V ~ 17 mag eclipsing polar discovered during the ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS). Extensive follow-up observations at X-ray (pointed ROSAT PSPC and HRI observations) and optical (time-resolved photometry and…
We elaborate on the analytical model of Ritter, Zhang, and Kolb (2000, A&A 360, 959) which describes the basic physics of irradiation-driven mass transfer cycles in semi-detached compact binary systems. In particular, we take into account a…
We present further observational data of the supersoft X-ray source RX J0527.8-6954 exhibiting a continuous decline over the past 5 yrs. With no clear trend of a concordant temperature decrease this might suggest an evolutionary scenario…
We investigate the mass loss from a rotationally distorted envelope following the early, rapid in-spiral of a companion star inside a common envelope. For initially wide, massive binaries (M_1+M_2=20M_{\odot}, P\sim 10 yr), the primary has…
We use an analytic framework to calculate the evolution of binary orbits under a physically-motivated model that accounts for angular momentum loss associated with winds from an accretion disk around the compact objected accretor. Our…
If the theoretical relationship between white dwarf mass and orbital period for wide-orbit binary radio pulsars is assumed to be correct, then the neutron star mass of PSR J2019+2425 is shown to be ~1.20 M_sun. Hence the mass of the neutron…
We present an evolutionary scenario for the spin-up and evolution of binary millisecond pulsars, according to which the companion of the pulsar PSR J 1740-5340, recently discovered as a binary with orbital period of 32.5 hr in the Globular…