Understanding the orbital periods of CEMP-s stars

TL;DR

This study investigates the orbital period distribution of CEMP-s stars to understand binary evolution and mass transfer processes, revealing discrepancies with models and suggesting modifications to initial period distributions and angular momentum assumptions.

Contribution

The paper introduces improved binary population models that better match observed CEMP-s star periods by adjusting initial period distributions and angular momentum loss assumptions.

Findings

Models underestimate short-period CEMP-s systems.

Long-period systems are more common than predicted.

Adjustments to angular momentum loss improve model fit.

Abstract

The chemical enrichments detected in CEMP-$s$ stars are believed to be the consequence of a mass-transfer episode from a now extinct AGB primary star. This hypothesis is borne out by the fact that most CEMP-$s$ stars exhibit RV variations suggesting that they are in binary systems. We use the period distribution of an observed sample of CEMP-$s$ stars to investigate the constraints it imposes on our models of binary evolution and on the properties of the metal-poor binary population in the Galactic halo. We simulate binary populations using different assumptions about the initial period distribution and the mass-transfer process, and we compare the predicted period distributions of our synthetic CEMP-$s$ stars with the observed one. With a set of default assumptions often made in binary population-synthesis studies, the percentage of observed CEMP-$s$ systems with periods shorter than 2000 days is underestimated by almost a factor of 3, and by a factor of 2 between 3000 and 10000 days, while 40% of the simulated systems have periods longer than 10000 days, which is approximately the longest measured period among CEMP-$s$ stars. To reconcile the results of the models with the orbital properties of observed CEMP-$s$ stars, one or both of the following conditions are necessary: ($i$) the specific angular momentum carried away by the material that escapes the binary system is 2-5 times higher than currently predicted by analytical models and hydrodynamical simulations of wind mass transfer, and ($ii$) the initial period distribution of very metal-poor binary stars is significantly different from that observed in the solar vicinity and weighted towards periods shorter than about 10000 days. Our simulations show that some, perhaps all, of the observed CEMP-$s$ stars with apparently constant RV could be undetected binaries with periods longer than 10000 days, but (...)