[Mesa-users] Modeling Double Degenerates

[Farag, Ebraheem]

Hello Momin,

If your models are both non-contact (wide binaries), it seems wise to stick to evolving them as single star models until you reach your desired stopping condition. Otherwise, you can indeed evolve both models in MESA-binary, but it might complicated to set up and use, especially if binary affects are not your focus of study, and your intent is to skip the mass transfer phases.

One can also evolve both models separately and then load the final WD models into MESA binar?  Can also try generating WD models using the make_co_wd test_suite as an outline or stick with 1M_pre_ms_to_wd.

Does this help?

-EbF
________________________________
From: Mesa-users <mesa-users-bounces at lists.mesastar.org> on behalf of Khan, Momin via Mesa-users <mesa-users at lists.mesastar.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2025 11:59 AM
To: MESA Users List <mesa-users at lists.mesastar.org>
Subject: [Mesa-users] Modeling Double Degenerates

Hi all,

I am interested in modeling a binary of two white dwarfs in MESA and am having trouble on how to start. I know there are existing test suites for evolving a pre-ms star to the WD cooling (such as 1M_pre_ms_to_wd) but I am wondering if there is something that can do this for two stars simultaneously. My first idea was to use the binary test suite evolve_both_stars, but I am not sure this is appropriate in this case. I am wanting to evolve both stars from the pre-ms, including H and He burning, and stopping the run when the WDs reach a specified lower Teff or luminosity limit. Any suggestions on finding an appropriate test suite or creating one would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Momin Khan
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Baylor Science Building E.362R.1
[cid:e8edc231-919c-465e-ba39-d362e33c57be]
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