Rapid Binary Mass Transfer: Circumbinary Outflows and Angular Momentum Losses
Peter Scherbak, Wenbin Lu, Jim Fuller
Abstract
Abstract High rates of stable mass transfer likely occur for some binary star systems, but the resulting flow of mass and angular momentum (AM) is unclear. We perform hydrodynamical simulations of a polytropic donor star and a point-mass secondary to determine the mass, AM, and velocity of gas that leaves the system, and the dependence on binary parameters such as mass ratio. The simulations use an adiabatic equation of state and do not include radiative cooling or irradiation of the outflow. Mass transfer is initiated by injecting heat into the stellar envelope, causing it to gradually inflate and overflow its Roche lobe. The transferred mass flows into an accretion disk, but soon begins to escape through the outer Lagrange point (L2), with a lesser amount escaping through the L3 point. This creates an equatorially concentrated circumbinary outflow with an opening angle of 10°–30° with a wind-like density profile ρ ∝ r −2 . We find that the ratios of the specific AM of the outflowing gas over that of the L2 point are approximately {0.95, 0.9, 0.8, 0.65} for mass ratios q = {0.25, 0.5, 1, 2} (accretor/donor). The asymptotic radial velocity of the outflowing gas, in units of the binary orbital velocity, is approximately 0.1–0.2 for the same mass ratios, except for q = 0.25, where it might be higher. This outflow, if ultimately unbound from the binary, may be a source of circumstellar material that interacts with ejecta from a subsequent supernova or stellar merger.