Related papers: Observed Planetary Nebulae as Descendants of Inter…
Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…
Planetary systems commonly survive the evolution of single stars, as evidenced by terrestrial-like planetesimal debris observed orbiting and polluting the surfaces of white dwarfs. This letter reports the identification of a circumbinary…
We present chemical abundances for planetary nebulae in M32, NGC 185, and NGC 205 based upon spectroscopy obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope using the Multi-Object Spectrograph. From these and similar data compiled from the…
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…
We describe spectroscopic observations of 21 low-mass (<0.45 M_sun) white dwarfs (WDs) from the Palomar-Green Survey obtained over four years. We use both radial velocities and infrared photometry to identify binary systems, and find that…
Although 25%-50% of white dwarfs (WDs) display evidence for remnant planetary systems, their orbital architectures and overall sizes remain unknown. Vibrant close-in (~1 Solar radius) circumstellar activity is detected at WDs spanning many…
We review the current state of observational work on the formation of brown dwarfs, focusing on their initial mass function, velocity and spatial distributions at birth, multiplicity, accretion, and circumstellar disks. The available…
We report here on two complementary population synthesis studies which relate directly to the formation and evolution of neutron star binaries in globular clusters. In the first, we compute the probability of retaining neutron stars in…
We discuss the detectability of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") in extrasolar planetary systems that are formed through orbital instability followed by planet-planet dynamical tides during…
We have carried out numerical evolutionary calculations of binary systems to investigate the formation of binary millisecond pulsars (pulsars with white dwarf companions). We apply the ``standard scenario'' in which the binary pulsars are…
Planetary nebulae have been used as tracers of light and kinematics for the stellar populations in early-type galaxies since more than twenty years. Several empirical properties have surfaced: for example the invariant bright cut-off of the…
Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…
In this short communication I compare recent findings suggesting a low binary star fraction for late type stars with knowledge concerning the forms of the stellar initial and present day mass functions for masses down to the hydrogen…
As astronomers, we are living an exciting time for what concerns the search for other worlds. Recent discoveries have already deeply impacted our vision of planetary formation and architectures. Future bio-signature discoveries will…
Many binary companions to the central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) are found to be inflated, perhaps indicating that accretion onto the central star might occur during the PN phase. The discovery of a handful of nova eruptions and…
Among a dozen known magnetar candidates there are no binary objects. As an estimate of a fraction of binary neutron stars is about 10% it is reasonable to address the question of solitarity of magnetars, to estimate theoretically the…
We present the results of an expanded, long-term radial velocity search (25 yrs) for evidence of binarity in a sample of seven bright proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe). The goal is to investigate the widely-held view that the bipolar or…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
We present a brief review on the formation and evolution of hydrogen deficient central stars of planetary nebulae. We include a detailed description of the main observable features of both the central stars and their surrounding nebulae and…
Considerable effort has been applied towards understanding the precise shaping mechanisms responsible for the diverse range of morphologies exhibited by planetary nebulae (PNe). A binary companion is increasingly gaining support as a…