ASPCS
 
Back to Volume
Paper: Massive Interacting Binaries: Setting the Stage
Volume: 367, Massive Stars in Interactive Binaries
Page: 3
Authors: Moffat, A.F.J.
Abstract: Massive stars, taken one at a time along with their compact remnants, include some very exotic objects: the most-luminous main-sequence stars, supergiants, Luminous Blue Variables, Wolf-Rayet stars, core-collapse supernovae, gamma-ray bursters, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes. But when they are paired up in close binaries where interaction between the components is possible, they take on an additional exotic flavour: colliding winds, dustars, Roche-lobe overflow, massive X-ray binaries, common envelopes, runaway mergers, spin-up, stripping, massive blue stragglers, Thorne-Zytkow objects. All this often in an ensemble of stars varying from small groups to dense giant starbursts, where dynamical effects with interesting consequences can also become very important. This paper is intended as a lead-up to this exciting workshop on these latter objects, with emphasis on colliding winds and tidal interactions. Of particular note is that, while RLOF does occur among massive stars, it may not be quite so prevalent as once thought, due to extremely high mass-loss rates notorious among massive stars, especially in the LBV phase.
Back to Volume