Stellar response after stripping as a model for common-envelope outcomes
arXiv:2107.14526 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stac237
Abstract
Binary neutron stars have been observed as millisecond pulsars, gravitational-wave sources, and as the progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts and kilonovae. Massive stellar binaries that evolve into merging double neutron stars are believed to experience a common-envelope episode. During this episode, the envelope of a giant star engulfs the whole binary. The energy transferred from the orbit to the envelope by drag forces or from other energy sources can eject the envelope from the binary system, leading to a stripped short-period binary. In this paper, we use one-dimensional single stellar evolution to explore the final stages of the common-envelope phase in progenitors of neutron star binaries. We consider an instantaneously stripped donor star as a proxy for the common-envelope phase and study the star's subsequent radial evolution. We determine a range of stripping boundaries which allow the star to avoid significant rapid re-expansion and which thus represent plausible boundaries for the termination of the common-envelope episode. We find that these boundaries lie above the maximum compression point, a commonly used location of the core/envelope boundary. We conclude that stars may retain fractions of a solar mass of hydrogen-rich material even after the common-envelope episode. If we consider orbital energy as the only energy source available, all of our models would overfill their Roche lobe after ejecting the envelope, whose binding energy includes gravitational, thermal, radiation, and recombination energy terms.
14 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
References in corpus (25)
- GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
- Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
- A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
- Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
- GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
- Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Pulsating Variable Stars, Rotation, Convective Boundaries, and Energy Conservation
- Observation of gravitational waves from two neutron star-black hole coalescences
- Formation of Double Neutron Star Systems
- MOCCA-SURVEY Database I: Coalescing Binary Black Holes Originating From Globular Clusters
- Formation of millisecond pulsars with CO white dwarf companions - II. Accretion, spin-up, true ages and comparison to MSPs with He white dwarf companions
- A wide star-black-hole binary system from radial-velocity measurements
- The role of mass transfer and common envelope evolution in the formation of merging binary black holes
- On the Rate of Neutron Star Binary Mergers from Globular Clusters
- Common envelope ejection in massive binary stars - Implications for the progenitors of GW150914 and GW151226
- Is HR 6819 a triple system containing a black hole? -- An alternative explanation
- On the role of recombination in common-envelope ejections
- Massive donors in interacting binaries: effect of metallicity
- Formation channels of single and binary stellar-mass black holes
- Common envelopes in massive stars: Towards the role of radiation pressure and recombination energy in ejecting red supergiant envelopes
- SNAPSHOT: Connections between Internal and Surface Properties of Massive Stars
- Fallback supernova assembly of heavy binary neutron stars and light black hole-neutron star pairs and the common stellar ancestry of GW190425 and GW200115
- Core radii and common-envelope evolution
- Formation Scenario of the Progenitor of iPTF13bvn Revisited
- Successful Common Envelope Ejection and Binary Neutron Star Formation in 3D Hydrodynamics
- Common envelope: the progress and the pitfalls