Helium Star Cataclysmics
Abstract
Scenarios for the formation of systems in which a carbon-oxygen white dwarf accretes helium from a nondegenerate companion that burns helium in its core are considered. The mass transfer rate in such systems is about 300 times larger than that anticipated for classical hydrogen-transferring cataclysmic variables with orbital periods less than two hours, and the lifetime is some 200 times smaller than that of short-period classical cataclysmics. After the transfer of about 0.15 solar mass of helium onto a dwarf of initial mass 0.6-1 solar, a thermonuclear runaway occurs in the accreted layer. If the mass of the accretor is about 0.6 solar, the system may appear as a short-lived helium PN. If it remains visible for about 100 yr, there may be one such supernova at any time in the Galaxy at a luminosity of the order 10,000 solar. If the mass of the accretor is 1 solar or larger, an explosion of weak supernova magnitude will occur. Perhaps two in 10 supernovae may be of this variety.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1086/169848
- Bibcode:
- 1991ApJ...370..615I
- Keywords:
-
- Binary Stars;
- Dwarf Novae;
- Helium;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Interiors;
- Supernovae;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Mass Transfer;
- Nuclear Fusion;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Stellar Temperature;
- Astrophysics;
- STARS: BINARIES;
- STARS: DWARF NOVAE;
- STARS: EVOLUTION;
- STARS: INTERIORS;
- STARS: NOVAE;
- STARS: SUPERNOVAE;
- STARS: WHITE DWARFS