Evolution of Low Mass Contact Binaries

TL;DR

This study models the long-term evolution of low-mass contact binaries, revealing their extended pre-contact phase, short contact phase, and eventual merging into single stars with potential planet-forming disks.

Contribution

It provides a detailed evolutionary model for low-mass contact binaries, highlighting the dominance of angular momentum loss and predicting their observable properties and merger rates.

Findings

Pre-contact phase lasts 8-9 Gyr.

Contact phase lasts about 0.8 Gyr.

Merging results in a fast-rotating star with a remnant disk.

Abstract

We present a study on low-mass contact binaries (LMCB) with orbital periods shorter than 0.3 days and total mass lower than about 1.4 solar mass. We show that such systems have a long pre-contact phase, which lasts for 8-9 Gyrs, while the contact phase takes only about 0.8 Gyr, which is rather a short fraction of the total life. With low mass transfer rate during contact, moderate mass ratios prevail in LMCBs since they do not have enough time to reach extreme mass ratios often observed in higher mass binaries. During the whole evolution both components of LMCBs remain within the MS band. The evolution of cool contact binaries towards merging is controlled by the interplay between the evolutionary expansion of the less massive component resulting in the mass transfer to the more massive component and the angular momentum loss from the system by the magnetized wind. In LMCB the angular momentum loss prevails. As a result, the orbital period systematically decreases until the binary overflows the outer critical Roche surface and the components merge into a single fast rotating star of a solar type surrounded by a remnant disk carrying excess angular momentum. The disk can be a place of planet formation with the age substantially lower than the age of a host star. The calculated theoretical tracks show good agreement with the physical properties of LMCB from the available observations. Estimates of the frequency of occurrence of LMCB and the merger formation rate indicate that about 40 LMCBs and about 100 low mass merger products is expected to exist within 100 pc from the Sun.