54,878 research outputs found
Synthetic horizontal branch morphology for different metallicities and ages under tidally enhanced stellar wind
It is believed that, except for metallicity, some other parameters are needed
to explain the horizontal branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GCs).
Furthermore, these parameters are considered to be correlated with the mass
loss of the red giant branch (RGB) stars. In our previous work, we proposed
that tidally enhanced stellar wind during binary evolution may affect the HB
morphology by enhancing the mass loss of the red giant primary. As a further
study, we now investigate the effects of metallicity and age on HB morphology
by considering tidally enhanced stellar winds during binary evolution. We
incorporated the tidally enhanced-stellar-wind model into Eggleton's stellar
evolution code to study the binary evolution. To study the effects of
metallicity and age on our final results, we conducted two sets of model
calculations: (i) for a fixed age, we used three metallicities, namely
Z=0.0001, 0.001, and 0.02. (ii) For a fixed metallicity, Z=0.001, we used five
ages in our model calculations: 14, 13, 12, 10, and 7 Gyr. We found that HB
morphology of GCs becomes bluer with decreasing metallicity, and old GCs
present bluer HB morphology than young ones. These results are consistent with
previous work. Although the envelope-mass distributions of zero-age HB stars
produced by tidally enhanced stellar wind are similar for different
metallicities, the synthetic HB under tidally enhanced stellar wind for Z=0.02
presented a distinct gap between red and blue HB. However, this feature was not
seen clearly in the synthetic HB for Z=0.001 and 0.0001. We also found that
higher binary fractions may make HB morphology become bluer, and we discussed
the results with recent observations.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
Evolution of binary stars and its implications for evolutionary population synthesis
Most stars are members of binaries, and the evolution of a star in a close
binary system differs from that of an ioslated star due to the proximity of its
companion star. The components in a binary system interact in many ways and
binary evolution leads to the formation of many peculiar stars, including blue
stragglers and hot subdwarfs. We will discuss binary evolution and the
formation of blue stragglers and hot subdwarfs, and show that those hot objects
are important in the study of evolutionary population synthesis (EPS), and
conclude that binary interactions should be included in the study of EPS.
Indeed, binary interactions make a stellar population younger (hotter), and the
far-ultraviolet (UV) excess in elliptical galaxies is shown to be most likely
resulted from binary interactions. This has major implications for
understanding the evolution of the far-UV excess and elliptical galaxies in
general. In particular, it implies that the far-UV excess is not a sign of age,
as had been postulated prviously and predicts that it should not be strongly
dependent on the metallicity of the population, but exists universally from
dwarf ellipticals to giant ellipticals.Comment: Oral talk on IAUS 262, Brazi
Stellar adiabatic mass loss model and applications
Roche-lobe overflow and common envelope evolution are very important in
binary evolution, which is believed to be the main evolutionary channel to hot
subdwarf stars. The details of these processes are difficult to model, but
adiabatic expansion provides an excellent approximation to the structure of a
donor star undergoing dynamical time scale mass transfer. We can use this model
to study the responses of stars of various masses and evolutionary stages as
potential donor stars, with the urgent goal of obtaining more accurate
stability criteria for dynamical mass transfer in binary population synthesis
studies. As examples, we describe here several models with the initial masses
equal to 1 Msun and 10 Msun, and identify potential limitations to the use of
our results for giant-branch stars.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures,Accepted for publication in AP&SS, Special issue
Hot Sub-dwarf Stars, in Han Z., Jeffery S., Podsiadlowski Ph. ed
Binary Stellar Population Synthesis Model
Using Yunnan evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) models, we present
integrated colours, integrated spectral energy distributions (ISEDs) and
absorption-line indices defined by the Lick Observatory image dissector scanner
(Lick/IDS) system, for an extensive set of instantaneous-burst binary stellar
populations (BSPs) with interactions. By comparing the results for populations
with and without interactions we show that the inclusion of binary interactions
makes the appearance of the population substantially bluer. This effect raises
the derived age and metallicity of the population.
To be used in the studies of modern spectroscopic galaxy surveys at
intermediate/high spectral resolution, we also present intermediate- (3A) and
high-resolution (~0.3A) ISEDs and Lick/IDS absorption-line indices for BSPs. To
directly compare with observations the Lick/IDS absorption indices are also
presented by measuring them directly from the ISEDs.Comment: 2 pages 2 figure
Cataclysmic Variables with Evolved Secondaries and the Progenitors of AM CVn Stars
We present the results of a systematic study of cataclysmic variables (CVs)
and related systems, combining detailed binary-population synthesis (BPS)
models with a grid of 120 binary evolution sequences calculated with a
Henyey-type stellar evolution code. In these sequences, we used 3 masses for
the white dwarf (0.6, 0.8, 1.0 Msun) and seven masses for the donor star in the
range of 0.6-1.4 Msun. The shortest orbital periods were chosen to have
initially unevolved secondaries, and the longest orbital period for each
secondary mass was taken to be just longer than the bifurcation period (16 - 22
hr), beyond which systems evolve towards long orbital periods. These
calculations show that systems which start with evolved secondaries near the
end or just after their main-sequence phase become ultra-compact systems with
periods as short as 7 min. These systems are excellent candidates for AM CVn
stars. Using a standard BPS code, we show how the properties of CVs at the
beginning of mass transfer depend on the efficiency for common-envelope (CE)
ejection and the efficiency of magnetic braking. In our standard model, where
CE ejection is efficient, some 10 per cent of all CVs have initially evolved
secondaries (with a central hydrogen abundance X_c < 0.4) and ultimately become
ultra-compact systems (implying a Galactic birthrate for AM CVn-like stars of
10^{-3} yr^{-1}). Almost all CVs with orbital periods longer than 5 hr are
found to have initially evolved or relatively massive secondaries. We show that
their distribution of effective temperatures is in good agreement with the
distribution of spectral types obtained by Beuermann et al. (1998).Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures (Fig. 4 in reduced format). Submitted to MNRA
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