1. Common Envelope Wind Tunnel: Range of Applicability and Self-similarity in Realistic Stellar Envelopes
- Author
-
Rosa Wallace Everson, Soumi De, Phillip Macias, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, and Morgan MacLeod
- Subjects
Common envelope evolution ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Self-similarity ,HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS ,Formalism (philosophy) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Binary number ,Binary stars ,01 natural sciences ,Stellar evolution ,ENERGY ,EVENTS ,Common envelope ,COMPANION ,0103 physical sciences ,Range (statistics) ,Statistical physics ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) ,Close binary stars ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Wind tunnel ,High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,Stellar interiors ,Physics ,Late stellar evolution ,STAR ,Common envelope binary stars ,EJECTION ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,EVOLUTION ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Drag ,OBJECTS ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena - Abstract
Common envelope evolution, the key orbital tightening phase of the traditional formation channel for close binaries, is a multistage process that presents many challenges to the establishment of a fully descriptive, predictive theoretical framework. In an approach complementary to global 3D hydrodynamical modeling, we explore the range of applicability for a simplified drag formalism that incorporates the results of local hydrodynamic "wind tunnel" simulations into a semi-analytical framework in the treatment of the common envelope dynamical inspiral phase using a library of realistic giant branch stellar models across the low, intermediate, and high mass regimes. In terms of a small number of key dimensionless parameters, we characterize a wide range of common envelope events, revealing the broad range of applicability of the drag formalism as well its self-similar nature across mass regimes and ages. Limitations arising from global binary properties and local structural quantities are discussed together with the opportunity for a general prescriptive application for this formalism., 16 pages, 12 figures
- Published
- 2020