[mesa-users] resending - Questions about physical model and numericalimplementation of binary star evolution

[Bill Paxton]

On Dec 11, 2014, at 7:34 AM, Dean Townsley wrote:

> I am unsure what the mesa binary module does once both stars touch their Roche lobes.  From your inlist, it appears that is a stopping condition, I don't know what might happen after that if it doesn't stop.


Once both stars fill their Roche lobes you've entered the strange and wonderful world of common envelopes.

Lot's of very smart people have spent lots of time exploring that world, and continue to do so.

mesa/star deals with stars; mesa/binary deals with pairs of stars; a common envelope object is neither of those.

so we stop when we form one and hand the problem off to a specialist.

once the common envelope object settles down to form a new star, then we can work with it again.

-B



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