The evolution of triples with a Roche-lobe filling outer star

Some fascinating results from simulations of triple star systems undergoing mass transfer, during which stellar evolution, gravitational dynamics and hydrodynamics all play an important role.

In neither of the cases studied an accretion disk formed, not even a circumbinary disk. The mass that leaves the outer star is funnelled through the first Lagrangian point of the outer orbit to land very near the inner binary system. The interaction between the gas and the inner binary causes the former to be ejected from the binary system like in a common envelope.

Authors: Nathan de Vries, Simon Portegies Zwart, Joana Figueira

Read the abstract on arXiv