No Arabic abstract
Binary and multiple stellar systems are numerous in our solar neighborhood with 80 per cent of the solar-type stars being members of systems with high order multiplicity. The Contact Binaries Towards Merging (CoBiToM) Project is a programme that focuses on contact binaries and multiple stellar systems, as a key for understanding stellar nature. The goal is to investigate stellar coalescence and merging processes, as the final state of stellar evolution of low-mass contact binary systems. Obtaining observational data of approximately 100 eclipsing binaries and multiple systems and more than 400 archival systems, the programme aspires to give insights for their physical and orbital parameters and their temporal variations, e.g. the orbital period modulation, spot activity etc. Gravitational phenomena in multiple-star environments will be linked with stellar evolution. A comprehensive analysis will be conducted, in order to investigate the possibility of contact binaries to host planets, as well as the link between inflated hot Jupiters and stellar mergers. The innovation of CoBiToM Project is based on a multi-method approach and a detailed investigation, that will shed light for the first time on the origin of stellar mergers and rapidly rotating stars. In this work we describe the scientific rationale, the observing facilities to be used and the methods that will be followed to achieve the goals of CoBiToM Project and we present the first results as an example of the current research on evolution of contact binary systems.
The period changes of contact binaries obtained by the analysis of eclipse minima timing are found mostly chaotic in nature. However, they are representable by a few cyclic changes superposed on a secular change. The cyclic changes are caused most probably by the third components revolving around the contact binaries. Some typical examples of the period changes of contact binaries are presented in the present contribution.
The time-series component of WISE is a valuable resource for the study of variable objects. We present an analysis of an all-sky sample of ~450,000 AllWISE+NEOWISE infrared light curves of likely variables identified in AllWISE. By computing periodograms of all these sources, we identify ~56,000 periodic variables. Of these, ~42,000 are short-period (P<1 day), near-contact or contact eclipsing binaries, many of which are on the main sequence. We use the periodic and aperiodic variables to test computationally inexpensive methods of periodic variable classification and identification, utilizing various measures of the probability distribution function of fluxes and of timescales of variability. The combination of variability measures from our periodogram and non-parametric analyses with infrared colors from WISE and absolute magnitudes, colors and variability amplitude from Gaia is useful for the identification and classification of periodic variables. Furthermore, we show that the effectiveness of non-parametric methods for the identification of periodic variables is comparable to that of the periodogram but at a much lower computational cost. Future surveys can utilize these methods to accelerate more traditional time-series analyses and to identify evolving sources missed by periodogram-based selections.
We present the discovery of 17 low mass white dwarfs (WDs) in short-period P<1 day binaries. Our sample includes four objects with remarkable log(g)~5 surface gravities and orbital solutions that require them to be double degenerate binaries. All of the lowest surface gravity WDs have metal lines in their spectra implying long gravitational settling times or on-going accretion. Notably, six of the WDs in our sample have binary merger times <10 Gyr. Four have >=0.9 Msun companions. If the companions are massive WDs, these four binaries will evolve into stable mass transfer AM CVn systems and possibly explode as underluminous supernovae. If the companions are neutron stars, then these may be milli-second pulsar binaries. These discoveries increase the number of detached, double degenerate binaries in the ELM Survey to 54; 31 of these binaries will merge within a Hubble time.
[Abridged] We test the evolutionary model of cool close binaries on the observed properties of near contact binaries (NCBs). Those with a more massive component filling the Roche lobe are SD1 binaries whereas in SD2 binaries the Roche lobe filling component is less massive. Our evolutionary model assumes that, following the Roche lobe overflow by the more massive component (donor), mass transfer occurs until mass ratio reversal. A binary in an initial phase of mass transfer, before mass equalization, is identified with SD1 binary. We show that the transferred mass forms an equatorial bulge around the less massive component (accretor). Its presence slows down the mass transfer rate to the value determined by the thermal time scale of the accretor, once the bulge sticks out above the Roche lobe. It means, that in a binary with a (typical) mass ratio of 0.5 the SD1 phase lasts at least 10 times longer than resulting from the standard evolutionary computations neglecting this effect. This is why we observe so many SD1 binaries. Our explanation is in contradiction to predictions identifying the SD1 phase with a broken contact phase of the Thermal Relaxation Oscillations model. The continued mass transfer, past mass equalization, results in mass ratio reversed. SD2 binaries are identified with this phase. Our model predicts that the time scales of SD1 and SD2 phases are comparable to one another. Analysis of the observations of 22 SD1 binaries, 27 SD2 binaries and 110 contact binaries (CBs) shows that relative number of both types of NCBs favors similar time scales of both phases of mass transfer. Total masses, orbital angular momenta and orbital periods of SD1 and SD2 binaries are indistinguishable from each other whereas they differ substantially from the corresponding parameters of CBs. We conclude that the results of the analysis fully support the model presented in this paper.
Recent advances in gravitational-wave astronomy make the direct detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two stellar-mass compact objects a realistic prospect. Evolutionary scenarios towards mergers of double compact objects generally invoke common-envelope evolution which is poorly understood, leading to large uncertainties in merger rates. We explore the alternative scenario of massive overcontact binary (MOB) evolution, which involves two very massive stars in a very tight binary which remain fully mixed due to their tidally induced high spin. We use the public stellar-evolution code MESA to systematically study this channel by means of detailed simulations. We find that, at low metallicity, MOBs produce double-black-hole (BH+BH) systems that will merge within a Hubble time with mass ratios close to one, in two mass ranges, ~25...60msun and >~ 130msun, with pair instability supernovae (PISNe) being produced in-between. Our models are also able to reproduce counterparts of various stages in the MOB scenario in the local Universe, providing direct support for it. We map the initial parameter space that produces BH+BH mergers, determine the expected chirp mass distribution, merger times, Kerr parameters and predict event rates. We typically find that for Z~<Z_sun/10, there is one BH+BH merger for ~1000 core-collapse supernovae. The advanced LIGO (aLIGO) detection rate is more uncertain and depends on the metallicity evolution. Deriving upper and lower limits from a local and a global approximation for the metallicity distribution of massive stars, we estimate aLIGO detection rates (at design limit) of ~19-550 yr^(-1) for BH+BH mergers below the PISN gap and of ~2.1-370 yr^(-1) above the PISN gap. Even with conservative assumptions, we find that aLIGO should soon detect BH+BH mergers from the MOB scenario and that these could be the dominant source for aLIGO detections.