Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1995-02-06
Astrophys.J. 444 (1995) L41
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
uuencoded compressed postscript, 8 pages incl. one figure, to appear in ApJ Letters.
Scientific paper
10.1086/187855
The minimum mass ratio for tidal stability of a contact binary containing two unevolved main-sequence stars is calculated to be $\qmin\simeq0.09$ in the case of a mostly radiative primary, and is higher if an appreciable fraction of the mass lies in a convective envelope. At least one observed system, AW UMa, has a mass ratio just below this value ($q=0.075$), implying, if the system is stable, that the primary must be slightly evolved and must have a very shallow convective envelope. Contact binaries with mass ratios significantly below that of AW UMa should not be observed, since they are tidally unstable and quickly merge into a single, rapidly rotating object, on a timescale $\sim10^3$--$10^4\,$yr.
No associations
LandOfFree
THE MINIMUM MASS RATIO OF W URSAE MAJORIS BINARIES does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with THE MINIMUM MASS RATIO OF W URSAE MAJORIS BINARIES, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and THE MINIMUM MASS RATIO OF W URSAE MAJORIS BINARIES will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-434251