This paper examines the properties of flows around objects embedded within common envelopes in the simplified context of a "wind tunnel." We establish characteristic relationships between key common envelope flow parameters like the Mach number and density scale height. Our wind tunnel is a three-dimensional, cartesian geometry hydrodynamic simulation setup that includes the gravity of the primary and secondary stars and allows us to study the coefficients of drag and accretion experienced by the embedded object. Accretion and drag lead to a transformation of an embedded object and its orbit during a common envelope phase. We present two suites of simulations spanning a range of density gradients and Mach numbers -relevant for flow near the limb of a stellar envelope to the deep interior. In one suite, we adopt an ideal gas adiabatic exponent of γ = 5/3, in the other, γ = 4/3. We find that coefficients of drag rise in flows with steeper density gradients and that coefficients of drag and accretion are consistently higher in the more compressible, γ = 4/3 flow. We illustrate the impact of these newly derived coefficients by integrating the inspiral of a secondary object through the envelopes of 3M (γ ≈ 5/3) and 80M (γ ≈ 4/3) giants. In these examples, we find a relatively rapid initial inspiral because, near the stellar limb, dynamical friction drag is generated mainly from dense gas focussed from deeper within the primary-star's envelope. This rapid initial inspiral timescale carries potential implications for the timescale of transients from early common envelope interaction.
During a common envelope episode in a binary system, the engulfed companion spirals to tighter orbital separations under the influence of drag from the surrounding envelope material. As this object sweeps through material with a steep radial gradient of density, net angular momentum is introduced into the flow, potentially leading to the formation of an accretion disk. The presence of a disk would have dramatic consequences for the outcome of the interaction because accretion might be accompanied by strong, polar outflows with enough energy to unbind the entire envelope. Without a detailed understanding of the necessary conditions for disk formation during common envelope, therefore, it is difficult to accurately predict the population of merging compact binaries. This paper examines the conditions for disk formation around objects embedded within common envelopes using the 'wind tunnel' formalism developed by MacLeod et al. (2017). We find that the formation of disks is highly dependent on the compressibility of the envelope material. Disks form only in the most compressible of stellar envelope gas, found in envelopes' outer layers in zones of partial ionization. These zones are largest in low-mass stellar envelopes, but comprise small portions of the envelope mass and radius in all cases. We conclude that disk formation and associated accretion feedback in common envelope is rare, and if it occurs, transitory. The implication for LIGO black hole binary assembly is that by avoiding strong accretion feedback, common envelope interactions should still result in the substantial orbital tightening needed to produce merging binaries.
Binary stars are common. While only those with small separations may exchange gas with one another, even the widest binaries interact with their gaseous surroundings. Drag forces and accretion rates dictate how these systems are transformed by these interactions. We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton flows, in which a binary moves supersonically relative to a homogeneous medium, using the adaptive mesh refinement code FLASH. We simulate a range of values of the initial semi-major axis of the orbit relative to the gravitational focusing impact parameter of the pair. When the binary separation is less than the gravitational focusing impact parameter, the pair orbits within a shared bow shock. When the pair is wider, each object has an individual bow-shock structure. The long-term evolution of the binary is determined by the timescales for accretion, slowing of the center of mass, and orbital inspiral. We find a clear hierarchy of these timescales; a binary's center-of-mass motion is slowed over a shorter timescale than the pair inspirals or accretes. In contrast to previous analytic predictions, which assume an unperturbed background medium, we find that the timescale for orbital inspiral is proportional to the semi-major axis to the 0.19 ± 0.01 power. This positive scaling indicates that gaseous drag forces can drive binaries either to coalescence or to the critical separation at which gravitational radiation dominates their further evolution. We discuss the implications of our results for binaries embedded in the interstellar medium, active galactic nuclei disks, and common envelope phases.
During the core collapse of massive stars that do not undergo a canonical energetic explosion, some of the hydrogen envelope of a red supergiant (RSG) progenitor may infall on to the newborn black hole (BH). Within the Athena++ framework, we perform three-dimensional, hydrodynamical simulations of idealized models of supergiant convection and collapse in order to assess whether the infall of the convective envelope can give rise to rotationally-supported material, even if the star has zero angular momentum overall. Our dimensionless, polytropic models are applicable to the optically-thick hydrogen envelope of non-rotating RSGs and cover a factor of 20 in stellar radius. At all radii, the specific angular momentum due to random convective flows implies associated circularization radii of 10–1500 times the innermost stable circular orbit of the BH. During collapse, the angular momentum vector of the convective flows is approximately conserved and is slowly varying on the timescale relevant to forming disks at small radii. Our results indicate that otherwise failed explosions of RSGs lead to the formation of rotationally-supported flows that are capable of driving outflows to large radii and powering observable transients. When the BH is able to accrete most of the hydrogen envelope, the final BH spin parameter is ∼ 0.5, even though the star is non-rotating. For fractional accretion of the envelope, the spin parameter is generally lower and never exceeds 0.8. We discuss the implications of our results for transients produced by RSG collapse to a black hole.
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