Related papers: Population Synthesis Studies of Close Binary Syste…
Eclipsing time variations (ETVs) in post-common-envelope binaries (PCEBs) were proposed to be due to the time-varying component of the stellar gravitational quadrupole moment. This is suggested to be produced by changes in the stellar…
We explore the initial conditions that lead to detached binary evolution of massive pre-MS binaries and ask how large a fraction of the observed binary systems may have been initially formed as low-mass protobinaries and later undergone a…
Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) methods can be used to sample from posterior distributions when the likelihood function is unavailable or intractable, as is often the case in biological systems. ABC methods suffer from inefficient…
We measure the mass distribution of main-sequence (MS) companions to hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) in post-common envelope binaries (PCEBs). We carried out a spectroscopic survey of 14 eclipsing systems ("HW Vir binaries") with orbital…
Close white dwarf binaries play an important role across a range of astrophysics, including thermonuclear supernovae, the Galactic low-frequency gravitational wave signal, and the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Progress in developing a…
We present a model to estimate the average primary masses, companion mass ranges, the inclination limit for recognizing a rotational variable, and the primary mass spreads for populations of binary stars. The model fits a population's…
We apply the angular momentum loss rates inferred from open cluster stars to the evolution of cataclysmic variables (CVs). We show that the angular momentum prescriptions used in earlier CV studies are inconsistent with the measured…
Ultracompact binary systems, consisting of two compact objects in an orbit $\lesssim 0.5 R_\odot$, should exhibit measurable rates of orbital period change ($\dot{P} \neq 0$) due to the emission of gravitational waves (GWs). Measurements of…
As part of an ongoing collaboration between student groups at high schools and professional astronomers, we have searched for the presence of circum-binary planets in a bona-fide unbiased sample of twelve post-common envelope binaries…
The common-envelope (CE) phase is an important stage in the evolution of binary stellar populations. The most common way to compute the change in orbital period during a CE is to relate the binding energy of the envelope of the Roche-lobe…
The period distribution of contact binaries exhibits a very sharp short period cut-off at 0.22 days. In order to provide valuable information on this short period limit, we observed ten totally eclipsing contact binaries with orbital…
We perform population synthesis of massive binaries to study the mergers of neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs) with the cores of their giant secondaries during common envelope evolution (CEE). We use different values of the…
Astrometry from {\it Gaia} DR3 has enabled the discovery of a sample of 3000+ binaries containing white dwarfs (WD) and main-sequence (MS) stars in relatively wide orbits, with orbital periods $P_{\rm orb} = (100-1000)$ d. This population…
We critically re-examine the available data on the spectral types, masses and radii of the secondary stars in cataclysmic variables (CVs) and low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), using the new catalogue of Ritter & Kolb (1998) as a starting…
The observed samples of supernovae (SN) and double compact objects (DCOs) provide several critical constraints on population-synthesis models: the parameters of these models must be carefully chosen to reproduce, among other factors, (i)…
Establishing a large sample of post common envelope binaries (PCEBs) that consist of a white dwarf plus an intermediate mass companion star of spectral type AFGK, offers the potential to provide new constraints on theoretical models of…
We use hierarchical Bayesian inference with non-parametric Gaussian process models to investigate the effective inspiral spin parameter, $\chi_{\rm eff}$, as a function of primary black hole mass in the third gravitational-wave transient…
Population-synthesis codes are an unique tool to explore the parameter space of massive binary star evolution and binary compact object (BCO) formation. Most population-synthesis codes are based on the same stellar evolution model, limiting…
Binary population synthesis calculations and associated predictions, especially event rates, are known to depend on a significant number of input model parameters with different degrees of sensitivity. At the same time, for systems with…
In this Letter we discuss a modification to the criterion for the common envelope (CE) event to result in envelope dispersion. We emphasize that the current energy criterion for the CE phase is not sufficient for an instability of the CE,…