Publications (40)
Detailed models of interacting short-period massive binary stars
K. Sen, N. Langer, P. Marchant +10
About a quarter of massive binary stars undergo mass transfer while both stars burn hydrogen at their cores, first on the thermal and then on the nuclear timescale. The nuclear tim…
Detection of single-degenerate massive binaries with Gaia: The impact of blue supergiants, triples, mass precision, and high-precision parallax requirements
S. Janssens, T. Shenar, H. Sana +1
Hundreds of black holes with massive main-sequence companions (OB+BHs) might be identified from Gaia astrometry with the Astrometric Mass-Ratio Function (AMRF). We investigate the…
Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): a spectroscopic VLT monitoring survey of massive stars in the SMC
T. Shenar, J. Bodensteiner, H. Sana +74
Surveys in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud revealed that the majority of massive stars will interact with companions during their lives. However, knowledge of the binary p…
Investigating the Chemically Homogeneous Evolution Channel and its Role in the Formation of the Enigmatic Binary Black Hole Progenitor Candidate HD 5980
K. Sharpe, L. A. C. van Son, S. E. de Mink +3
Chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE) is a promising channel for forming massive binary black holes. The enigmatic, massive Wolf-Rayet (WR) binary HD 5980 A&B has been proposed to…
The B-type Binaries Characterisation Programme II. VFTS 291: A stripped star from a recent mass transfer phase
J. I. Villaseñor, D. J. Lennon, A. Picco +12
Recent studies of massive binaries with putative black hole companions have uncovered a phase of binary evolution that has not been observed before, featuring a bloated stripped st…
A high fraction of close massive binary stars at low metallicity
H. Sana, T. Shenar, J. Bodensteiner +74
At high metallicity, a majority of massive stars have at least one close stellar companion. The evolution of such binaries is subject to strong interaction processes, heavily impac…
A synthetic population of Wolf-Rayet stars in the LMC based on detailed single and binary star evolution models
D. Pauli, N. Langer, D. R. Aguilera-Dena +2
Without doubt, mass transfer in close binary systems contributes to the populations of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. However, the binary formati…
X-Shooting ULLYSES: massive stars at low metallicity. I. Project Description
Jorick S. Vink, A. Mehner, P. A. Crowther +78
Observations of individual massive stars, super-luminous supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational-wave events involving spectacular black-hole mergers, indicate that the low…
Modelling time-dependent convective penetration in 1D stellar evolution
Cole Johnston, Mathias Michielsen, Evan H. Anders +7
1D stellar evolution calculations produce uncertain predictions for quantities like the age, core mass, core compactness, and nucleo-synthetic yields; a key source of uncertainty i…
The Tarantula massive binary monitoring VII. The nature of the eccentric O+BH binary candidate VFTS 812
K. Deshmukh, H. Sana, O. Verhamme +9
Massive O-type stars () with an X-ray quiet black hole (BH) companion represent a crucial stage in massive binary evolution leading to binary BH mergers. The p…
Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): Bayesian inference of natal kicks from inert black hole binaries
R. Willcox, P. Marchant, A. Vigna-Gómez +15
Context. The emerging population of inert black hole binaries (BHBs) provides a unique opportunity to constrain black hole (BH) formation physics. These systems are composed of a s…
Identifying quiescent compact objects in massive Galactic single-lined spectroscopic binaries
L. Mahy, H. Sana, T. Shenar +13
Aims. To search for these rare objects, we study 32 Galactic O-type stars that were reported as SB1s in the literature. In our sample we include Cyg X-1, which is known to host an…
The drastic impact of Eddington-limit induced mass ejections on massive star populations
D. Pauli, N. Langer, A. Schootemeijer +6
Massive stars are the key engines of the Universe. However, their evolution and thus their ionizing feedback are still not fully understood. One of the largest gaps in current stel…
Properties of OB star-black hole systems derived from detailed binary evolution models
N. Langer, C. Schürmann, K. Stoll +38
The recent gravitational wave measurements have demonstrated the existence of stellar mass black hole binaries. It is essential for our understanding of massive star evolution to i…
The highly magnetic Wolf-Rayet binary HD 45166 resolved with VLTI/GRAVITY
K. Deshmukh, T. Shenar, A. Mérand +9
HD 45166 was recently reported to be a long-period binary comprising a B7V star and a highly magnetic (kG) hot Wolf-Rayet-like component, dubbed a…
Dynamically inflated wind models of classical Wolf-Rayet stars
L. G. Poniatowski, J. O. Sundqvist, N. D. Kee +6
Vigorous mass loss in the classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase is important for the late evolution and final fate of massive stars. We develop spherically symmetric time-dependent and s…
SN 2016coi (ASASSN-16fp): an energetic H-stripped core-collapse supernova from a massive stellar progenitor with large mass loss
G. Terreran, R. Margutti, D. Bersier +25
We present comprehensive observations and analysis of the energetic H-stripped SN 2016coi (a.k.a. ASASSN-16fp), spanning the -ray through optical and radio wavelengths, acquire…
Modeling overcontact binaries, I. The effect of tidal deformation
M. Fabry, P. Marchant, H. Sana
In the realm of massive stars, strong binary interaction is commonplace. One extreme case are overcontact systems, which is expected to be part of the evolution of all stars evolvi…
Is HR 6819 a triple system containing a black hole? -- An alternative explanation
J. Bodensteiner, T. Shenar, L. Mahy +10
HR 6819 was recently proposed to be a triple system consisting of an inner B-type giant + black hole binary with an orbital period of 40d and an outer Be tertiary. This interpretat…
A magnetic massive star has experienced a stellar merger
A. J. Frost, H. Sana, L. Mahy +13
Massive stars (those larger than 8 solar masses at formation) have radiative envelopes that cannot sustain a dynamo, the mechanism that produces magnetic fields in lower-mass stars…
A massive helium star with a sufficiently strong magnetic field to form a magnetar
T. Shenar, G. A. Wade, P. Marchant +13
Magnetars are highly magnetized neutron stars; their formation mechanism is unknown. Hot helium-rich stars with spectra dominated by emission lines are known as Wolf-Rayet stars. W…
HR6819: a puffed-up stripped star system challenging stable mass transfer theory
A. Picco, P. Marchant, H. Sana +8
HR6819 is the first system with a puffed-up low mass stripped star and a classical Be star whose nature has been confirmed by optical interferometry. It shows the most extreme mass…
A spectroscopic multiplicity survey of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars. III. The northern late-type nitrogen-rich sample
K. Dsilva, T. Shenar, H. Sana +1
Massive stars are powerful cosmic engines. In the phases immediately preceding core-collapse, massive stars in the Galaxy with may appear as classical…
Detecting Stripped Stars While Searching for Quiescent Black Holes
J. Bodensteiner, M. Heida, M. Abdul-Masih +13
While the number of stellar-mass black holes detected in X-rays or as gravitational wave sources is steadily increasing, the known population remains orders of magnitude smaller th…
Sensitivity of the lower-edge of the pair instability black hole mass gap to the treatment of time dependent convection
M. Renzo, R. J. Farmer, S. Justham +3
Gravitational-wave detections are now probing the black hole (BH) mass distribution, including the predicted pair-instability mass gap. These data require robust quantitative predi…
Asteroseismic test of rotational mixing in low-mass white dwarfs
A. G. Istrate, G. Fontaine, A. Gianninas +4
We exploit the recent discovery of pulsations in mixed-atmosphere (He/H), extremely low-mass white dwarf precursors (ELM proto-WDs) to test the proposition that rotational mixing i…
New gravitational-wave data support a bimodal black-hole mass distribution
R. Willcox, F. R. N. Schneider, E. Laplace +7
Detailed stellar evolution and supernova models yield a bimodal black-hole mass distribution with a narrow peak around 10 solar masses from stars within a narrow range of progenito…
Resolving the dynamical mass tension of the massive binary 9 Sagittarii
M. Fabry, C. Hawcroft, A. J. Frost +4
Direct dynamical mass measurements of stars with masses above 30 M are rare. This is the result of the low yield of the upper initial mass function and the limited number…
The Tarantula Massive Binary Monitoring V. R 144: a wind-eclipsing binary with a total mass > 140 Msun
T. Shenar, H. Sana, P. Marchant +21
R 144 is the visually brightest WR star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). R 144 was reported to be a binary, making it potentially the most massive binary thus observed. We perf…
The 'hidden' companion in LB-1 unveiled by spectral disentangling
T. Shenar, J. Bodensteiner, M. Abdul-Masih +9
The intriguing binary LS V +22 25 (LB-1) has drawn much attention following claims of it being a single-lined spectroscopic binary with a 79-day orbit comprising a B-type star and…
Observational properties of massive black hole binary progenitors
R. Hainich, L. M. Oskinova, T. Shenar +6
The first directly detected gravitational waves (GW 150914) were emitted by two coalescing black holes (BHs) with masses of ~36Msun and ~29Msun. Several scenarios have been propose…
Populations of evolved massive binary stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud I: Predictions from detailed evolution models
X. -T. Xu, C. Schürmann, N. Langer +13
Context. The majority of massive stars are born with a close binary companion. How this affects their evolution and fate is still largely uncertain, especially at low metallicity.…
Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): Pipeline-Determined Physical Properties of OB Stars
J. M. Bestenlehner, Paul A. Crowther, V. A. Bronner +8
We aim to determine the physical properties of OB stars from the multi-epoch VLT/FLAMES BLOeM spectroscopic survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. We apply a pipeline designed to an…
A spectroscopic multiplicity survey of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars: II. The northern WNE sequence
K. Dsilva, T. Shenar, H. Sana +1
Most massive stars reside in multiple systems that will interact over the course of their lifetime. Classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars represent the final end stages of stellar evolut…
Uncovering astrometric black hole binaries with massive main-sequence companions with Gaia
S. Janssens, T. Shenar, H. Sana +6
The hunt for compact objects is on. Rarely seen massive binaries with a compact object are a crucial phase in the evolution towards compact object mergers. In Gaia data release 3 (…
Common envelope ejection in massive binary stars - Implications for the progenitors of GW150914 and GW151226
M. U. Kruckow, T. M. Tauris, N. Langer +3
The recently detected gravitational wave signals (GW150914 and GW151226) of the merger event of a pair of relatively massive stellar-mass black holes (BHs) calls for an investigati…
Multiplicity of Massive Stars at Low Metallicity: Early Results from the BLOeM Campaign
T. Shenar, J. Bodensteiner, M. Abdul-Masih +73
The BLOeM campaign presents the first large‑scale spectroscopic survey of 929 massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing a high intrinsic binary fraction (>70%) among m…
Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): Projected rotational velocities
D. J. Lennon, S. R. Berlanas, A. Herrero +36
The Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM) survey is an ESO large programme designed to obtain multi-epoch spectroscopy for 929 massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). It w…
Predictions for the hydrogen-free ejecta of pulsational pair-instability supernovae
M. Renzo, R. Farmer, S. Justham +5
Present time-domain astronomy efforts will unveil a variety of rare transients. We focus here on pulsational pair-instability evolution, which can result in signatures observable w…
Mind the gap: The location of the lower edge of the pair instability supernovae black hole mass gap
R. Farmer, M. Renzo, S. E de Mink +2
Gravitational-wave detections are now starting to probe the mass distribution of stellar-mass black holes (BHs). Robust predictions from stellar models are needed to interpret thes…