Population Synthesis of Galactic Be-star Binaries with a Helium-star Companion

LB-1 was originally suggested to harbor a very massive (∼70 M ) black hole, but was recently suggested to be a post-mass transfer binary containing a Be star and a helium (He) star. In this paper, we use the binary population synthesis method to simulate the potential population of the Be-He binarie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2021-02, Vol.908 (1), p.67
Main Authors: Shao, Yong, Li, Xiang-Dong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
B stars
Binary stars
Close binary stars
Companion stars
Evolution
Helium
Interacting binary stars
Mass transfer
Milky Way
Orbits
Population
Stars & galaxies
Stellar evolution
Synthesis
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Summary:LB-1 was originally suggested to harbor a very massive (∼70 M ) black hole, but was recently suggested to be a post-mass transfer binary containing a Be star and a helium (He) star. In this paper, we use the binary population synthesis method to simulate the potential population of the Be-He binaries in the Milky Way. Mass transfer process during the progenitor binary evolution plays a vital role in determining the possible properties of the Be-He binary population. By constructing a range of physical models with significantly different mass-transfer efficiencies, we obtain the predicted distributions at the current epoch of the component masses and the orbital periods for the Be-He binaries. In particular, we show that, LB-1 very likely has evolved through non-conservative mass transfer if it is indeed a Be-He system. We estimate that there are more than 103 Be-He binaries with V-band apparent magnitudes brighter than LB-1.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/abd2b4