Related papers: Observed Planetary Nebulae as Descendants of Inter…
Thousands of confirmed and candidate exoplanets have been identified in recent years. Consequently, theoretical research on the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems has seen a boost, and the processes of planet-planet…
We investigate the formation of binary stellar systems. We consider a model where a `seed' protobinary system forms, via fragmentation, within a collapsing molecular cloud core and evolves to its final mass by accreting material from an…
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 atmospheres of between one quarter and one half of observed single white dwarfs in the Milky Way contain heavy element pollution from planetary debris. The pollution observed in white dwarfs in binary star systems is, however, less…
We use the results of realistic N-body simulations to investigate the appearance of the white dwarf population in dense star clusters. We show that the presence of a substantial binary population in a star cluster, and the interaction of…
Almost half of the stellar systems in the solar neighborhood are made up of multiple stars. In multiple-star systems, planet formation is under the dynamical influence of stellar companions, and the planet occurrence rate is expected to be…
We review work on the evolution of planetary nebulae and proto-planetaries via magneto-rotational mechanisms showing that a dynamo generated magnetic field can produce the energy and momentum needed to drive pPN and PNe outflows. Angular…
The predicted rate of binary black hole mergers from galactic fields can vary over several orders of magnitude and is extremely sensitive to the assumptions of stellar evolution. But in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters,…
We report the discovery of three edge-on binaries with white dwarf companions that gravitationally magnify (instead of eclipsing) the light of their stellar primaries, as revealed by a systematic search for pulses with long periods in the…
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…
We have investigated i) the formation of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") from capturing each other through planet-planet dynamical tide during their close encounters and ii) the following…
First results are presented for a Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys snapshot study of white dwarfs with likely red dwarf companions. Of 48 targets observed and analyzed so far, 27 are totally or partially resolved into two…
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…
Recent studies show that more than 70% of massive stars do not evolve as effectively single stars, but as members of interacting binary systems. The evolution of these stars is thus strongly altered compared to similar but isolated objects.…
Over 40% of Sun-like stars are bound in binary or multistar systems. Stellar remnants in edge-on binary systems can gravitationally magnify their companions, as predicted 40 years ago. By using data from the Kepler spacecraft, we report the…
As of today over 40 planetary systems have been discovered in binary star systems. In all cases the configuration appears to be circumstellar, where the planets orbit around one of the stars, the secondary acting as a perturber. The…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Context: Field stars are not always single stars, but can often be found in bound double systems. Since binary frequencies in the birth places of stars, young embedded clusters, are sometimes even higher than on average the question arises…
The brightest planetary nebulae achieve similar maximum luminosities, have similar ratios of chemcial abundances, and apparently share similar kinematics in all galaxies. These similarities, however, are not necessarily expected…
Strong encounters between single stars and binaries play a pivotal role in the evolution of star clusters. Such encounters can also dramatically modify the orbital parameters of binaries, exchange partners in and out of binaries, and are a…