Astronomy

A star spills into its companion

Expand the donor toward its Roche lobe. Watch the transfer stream switch on when the stellar surface reaches the critical radius.

By Mykhailo Makarov

Actual application image

The model and its limits

Eggleton equivalent Roche radius and a prescribed illustrative stream. Stream shape, disk and transfer-rate proxy are not a hydrodynamic calculation.

Equations used in the module

Equations
R_L/a = 0.49q^(2/3)/[0.6q^(2/3)+ln(1+q^(1/3))]; stream turns on at R_star > R_L

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