Conservative mass transfer in close binary systems. I - Equations of motion for spin and orbital angular momenta

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Angular Momentum, Binary Stars, Celestial Mechanics, Mass Transfer, Stellar Evolution, X Ray Sources, Equations Of Motion, Orbital Mechanics, Spin, Stellar Mass Accretion, Stellar Mass Ejection, Tides

Scientific paper

The equations of motion for the spin and orbital angular momenta of a semidetached binary system are derived with the assumption that mass is transferred and that the Lagrange point lies along the instantaneous interstellar axis, although orbital angular momentum is not assumed to be conserved. These general equations of motion are then applied to a simple model for flow velocity. It is found that if the torques are ignored, the spin angular momentum axis of the mass-losing star misaligns with respect to the orbit normal on a time scale of approximately 2k(tau), where k is an effective gyration constant and tau is the time scale for mass loss. Although this quantitative time scale is obtained for a specific model of flow velocity, it is suggested that misalignment is likely to occur for any physically reasonable model of flow velocity in the torque-free approximation. It is concluded that misalignment due to mass transfer may be competitive with or even dominate alignment due to tidal dissipation, especially during phases of rapid mass transfer.

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