On formation of close binaries by two-body tidal capture
- Creators
- Press, William H.
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Teukolsky, Saul A.
Abstract
We calculate in detail the two-body tidal capture mechanism of Fabian, Pringle, and Rees: when two unbound stars have a close encounter, they may become bound by the energy that each deposits into nonradial oscillations of the other. After dimensional scalings are removed, the process depends only on a single dimensionless parameter, and on the dimensionless envelope structure of the stars. General formulae are derived; for definiteness, we apply them to the specific case of stars with an n = 3 polytropic structure. Capture cross sections as a function of velocity and capture rates for an isothermal distribution are given for the case of equal-mass stars; other cases can easily be computed from the formulae given.
Additional Information
© 1977 The American Astronomical Society. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation [PHY 76-14852] at Harvard University, and [PHY 76-07297] at Cornell University; also by grant [GP-30799X] at Princeton University. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow.Attached Files
Published - 1977ApJ___213__183P.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 95268
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190506-153505082
- NSF
- PHY 76-14852
- NSF
- PHY 76-07297
- NSF
- GP-30799X
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Created
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2019-05-06Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field