Stellar evolution in binary systems

Lecturer: H.-P. Gail

Location and Time: Seminar room ITA, SR I, Albert-Überle-Str. 3-5, Mo 15-17 hct
Start: April 11, 2005
See also: Lectures in Astronomy

Two thirds of all stars are members of a binary or multiple system. Except for the cases with very wide orbits the expansion of the stars during their evolution off from the main sequence leads to an exchange of mass and of stellar and orbital angular momentum during their evolution to the giant branch or during the their evolution along the first or second giant branch. This has far reaching consequences for the subsequent evolution of the stars and results in various phenomena, which are absent from single star evolution, for instance supernova explosions of typ Ia, Novae, X-Ray binaries, binary pulsars ...
This lecture gives an overview over the over the numerous phenomena related to binary evolution. It concentrates on the theoretical aspects of the problem.

Contents (preliminary):

Evolution of single stars
Close binaries
The two-body problem
The three-body problem
Mass exchange in binaries
Orbit evolution during mass exchange
Time scales
Polytropic gaseous spheres
Examples for evolution of close binary stars with mass exchange
Calculation of mass-transfer rate
Circularisation and synchronisation
Accretion disks
Common-envelope evolution
Non-conservative binary evolutrion
Population synthesis of binaries in galaxies

Prerequisites:

Basic knowledge of astrophysics from the courses Introduction to astronomy & astrophysics I + II.

Recommended is the parallel lecture Structure and evolution of stars (-->) by W.M. Tscharnuter (though this is not a necessary prerequisite for an understandig of the topics of this lecture).

Exercises to the lecture: (-->)

Literature:

Interacting Binaries (1994) S.N. Shore, M. Livio, E.P.J. van den Heuvel. Springer, Berlin
Stellar Astrophysics (1998) R.Q. Huang, K.N. Yu. Springer, Singapore
Structure and Evolution of Single and Binary Stars (1992) C.W.H. de Loore. Kluwer Academic Publishers
An Introduction to Close Binary Stars (2001) R. W. Hilditch. Cambridge University Press
Close Binary Systems (1959) Z. Kopal. Chapman & Hall, London
Interacting binary stars (1985) J.E. Pringle, R.A. Wade (ed.) Cambridge University Press
Compact Stars in Binaries, IAU Symp. 165 (1996) J. van Paradijs, E.P.J. van den Heuvel, E. Kuulkers (ed.). Kluwer, Dordrecht
The Formation of Binary Stars, IAU Symp. 200 (2001) H. Zinnecker, R.D Mathieu (ed.) Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco
Cataclysmic Variable Stars (1995) B. Warner. Cambridge University Press
X-ray Binaries (1995) W. H. G. Lewin, J. van Paradijs, E. P. J. van den Heuvel (eds.). Cambridge University Press
Eclipsing Variable Stars (1973) V. P. Tsesevitch. Wiley, New York
Binary and Multiple Systems of Stars (1973) A. H. Batten. Pergamon Press, Oxford