Evolutionary Processes in Binary Stars

The lives of binary and multiple stars are reviewed, beginning with their cradles in dark clouds, such as those in Taurus and Orion, and ending with the high-energy infernos of supernova explosions and bright X-ray binaries. It has become clear that there is a common thread that runs through all of our understanding of binary evolution: the set of physical processes which they each undergo at various stages of their evolution. This volume provides an up-to-date review of binary stellar structure and evolution from this perspective, considering these processes not just from the point of view of understanding the basic physics involved, but also with the aim of showing how similar processes apply to disparate groups of stars, and how a realisation of this fact can lead to a better understanding of the field as a whole. Examples of such processes are the behaviour of discs around stars and binaries, the effects of the distortion of finite-sized stars in a binary, both on the stars themselves and on the orbit, and strong interactions between stars, such as mass transfer, common-envelope evolution, and collisions.

The lives of binary and multiple stars are reviewed, beginning with their cradles in dark clouds, such as those in Taurus and Orion, and ending with the high-energy infernos of supernova explosions and bright X-ray binaries. It has become clear that there is a common thread that runs through all of our understanding of binary evolution: the set of physical processes which they each undergo at various stages of their evolution. This volume provides an up-to-date review of binary stellar structure and evolution from this perspective, considering these processes not just from the point of view of understanding the basic physics involved, but also with the aim of showing how similar processes apply to disparate groups of stars, and how a realisation of this fact can lead to a better understanding of the field as a whole. Examples of such processes are the behaviour of discs around stars and binaries, the effects of the distortion of finite-sized stars in a binary, both on the stars themselves and on the orbit, and strong interactions between stars, such as mass transfer, common-envelope evolution, and collisions.

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The 19 papers discuss the physical processes that all binary stars seem to go through at various stages of their evolution, in order to increase understanding about both the processes themselves better and how their varieties of expression in a disparate groups of stars can provide information about stars and binarity in general. Lecturers were chosen from among the younger generation of scientists, who had entered the field since the previous gathering on the subject. Their topics include observations of discs around pre-main-sequence binary stars, chaos and tidal capture, hydrodynamic encounters, the structure and evolution of massive close binaries, common envelope evolution, population synthesis, and far out on the edge of the field, stellar and dynamical evolution within triple stars. Indexed by object as well as by subject. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)