7,679 research outputs found
Common-Envelope Evolution: the Nucleosynthesis in Mergers of Massive Stars
We study the merging of massive stars inside a common envelope for binary
systems consisting of a red supergiant with a mass of 15-20 Msun and a
main-sequence companion of 1-5 Msun. We are particularly interested in the
stage when the secondary, having overfilled its Roche lobe inside the common
envelope, starts to transfer mass to the core of the primary at a very high
mass-transfer rate and the subsequent nucleo-synthesis in the core-impact
region. Using a parametrized model for the structure of the envelope at this
stage, we perform 2-dimensional hydrodynamical calculations with the Munich
Prometheus code to calculate the dynamics of the stream emanating from the
secondary and its impact on the core of the primary. We find that, for the
lower end of the estimated mass-transfer rate, low-entropy, hydrogen-rich
material can penetrate deep into the primary core where nucleosynthesis through
the hot CNO cycle can take place and that the associated neutron exposure may
be sufficiently high for significant s-processing. For mass-transfer rates at
the high end of our estimated range and higher densities in the stream, the
stream impact can lead to the dredge-up of helium, but the neutron production
is too low for significant s-processing.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceeding of ``Binary and
Multiple Star Systems'' (Bormio (Italy), June 2000
On the role of recombination in common-envelope ejections
The energy budget in common-envelope events (CEEs) is not well understood,
with substantial uncertainty even over to what extent the recombination energy
stored in ionised hydrogen and helium might be used to help envelope ejection.
We investigate the reaction of a red-giant envelope to heating which mimics
limiting cases of energy input provided by the orbital decay of a binary during
a CEE, specifically during the post-plunge-in phase during which the spiral-in
has been argued to occur on a time-scale longer than dynamical. We show that
the outcome of such a CEE depends less on the total amount of energy by which
the envelope is heated than on how rapidly the energy was transferred to the
envelope and on where the envelope was heated. The envelope always becomes
dynamically unstable before receiving net heat energy equal to the envelope's
initial binding energy. We find two types of outcome, both of which likely lead
to at least partial envelope ejection: "runaway" solutions in which the
expansion of the radius becomes undeniably dynamical, and superficially
"self-regulated" solutions, in which the expansion of the stellar radius stops
but a significant fraction of the envelope becomes formally dynamically
unstable. Almost the entire reservoir of initial helium recombination energy is
used for envelope expansion. Hydrogen recombination is less energetically
useful, but is nonetheless important for the development of the dynamical
instabilities. However, this result requires the companion to have already
plunged deep into the envelope; therefore this release of recombination energy
does not help to explain wide post-common-envelope orbits.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments are welcom
On the upper limit of antinuclei content in cosmic rays
Upper limit of antinuclei content in cosmic ray
On the relationship between the phases of 27-day total ozone and solar activity indices in different latitudinal zones
The dynamics of 27 day total ozone variations during and 11 year solar activity cycle at high and low latitudes was analyzed. The calculations were made using a specially worked out program permitting, besides the determination of the amplitudes and phases, the observation of the coherence of phases in any time interval. To characterize solar activity, solar radio-flux at 10.7 cm was used. The results of the calculation of total ozone phases difference and those of the index F(sub 10.7), as well as the amplitudes of the 27 day variations of these parameters are presented
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