Hydrodynamic simulations of white dwarf–white dwarf mergers and the origin of R Coronae Borealis stars

Shiber, Sagiv; De&nbsp;Marco, Orsola; Motl, Patrick M.; Munson, Bradley; Marcello, Dominic C.; Frank, Juhan; Diehl, Patrick; Clayton, Geoffrey C.; Skinner, Bennett N.; Kaiser, Hartmut; Daiß, Gregor; Pflüger, Dirk; Staff, Jan E.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stae2343

Title: Hydrodynamic simulations of white dwarf–white dwarf mergers and the origin of R Coronae Borealis stars

Journal Article · 22 October 2024 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2343 · OSTI ID:2478629

^[1]; De Marco, Orsola ^[2]; Motl, Patrick M. ^[3]; Munson, Bradley ^[1]; Marcello, Dominic C. ^[1]; Frank, Juhan ^[4]; Diehl, Patrick ^[5];

^[1];

^[6]; Kaiser, Hartmut ^[1]; Daiß, Gregor ^[7];

^[8]; Staff, Jan E. ^[9]

Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Macquarie Univ., NSW (Australia)
Indiana University, Kokomo, IN (United States)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, LA 70803,
Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada)
Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Univ. of Stuttgart (Germany)
Univ. of Stuttgart (Germany)
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden)

We study the properties of double white dwarf (DWD) mergers by performing hydrodynamic simulations using the new and improved adaptive mesh refinement code OCTO-TIGER. We follow the orbital evolution of DWD systems of mass ratio $q=0.7$ for tens of orbits until and after the merger to investigate them as a possible origin for R Coronae Borealis (RCB) type stars. We reproduce previous results, finding that during the merger, the helium WD donor star is tidally disrupted within 20–80 min since the beginning of the simulation onto the accretor carbon–oxygen WD, creating a high temperature shell around the accretor. We investigate the possible helium burning in this shell and the merged object’s general structure. Specifically, we are interested in the amount of oxygen-16 dredged-up from the accretor to the hot shell and the amount of oxygen-18 produced. This is critical as the discovery of very low oxygen-16 to oxygen-18 ratios in RCB stars pointed out the merger scenario as a favourable explanation for their origin. A small amount of hydrogen in the donor may help keep the oxygen-16 to oxygen-18 ratios within observational bounds, even if moderate dredge-up from the accretor occurs. In addition, we perform a resolution study to reconcile the difference found in the amount of oxygen-16 dredge-up between smoothed-particle hydrodynamics and grid-based simulations.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2478629

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--24-28926

Journal Information:: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 535; ISSN 0035-8711

Publisher:: Oxford University PressCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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binaries: close
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Title: Hydrodynamic simulations of white dwarf–white dwarf mergers and the origin of R Coronae Borealis stars

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