Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Combining REBOUND and MESA : dynamical evolution of planets orbiting interacting binaries

Published inMonthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 537, no. 1, p. 285-292
Publication date2025-01-15
First online date2025-01-20
Abstract

Although planets have been found orbiting binary systems, whether they can survive binary interactions is debated. While the tightest-orbit binaries should host the most dynamically stable and long-lived circumbinary planetary systems, they are also the systems that are expected to experience mass transfer, common envelope evolution, or stellar mergers. In this study, we explore the effect of stable non-conservative mass transfer on the dynamical evolution of circumbinary planets. We present a new script that seamlessly integrates binary evolution data from the 1D binary stellar evolution code mesa into the N-body simulation code rebound. This integration framework enables a comprehensive examination of the dynamical evolution of circumbinary planets orbiting mass-transferring binaries, while simultaneously accounting for the detailed stellar structure evolution. In addition, we introduce a recalibration method to mitigate numerical errors from updates of binary properties during the system’s dynamical evolution. We construct a reference binary model in which a $2.21\, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$ star loses its hydrogen-rich envelope through non-conservative mass transfer to the $1.76\, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$ companion star, creating a $0.38\, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$ subdwarf. We find the tightest stable semimajor axis for circumbinary planets to be $\simeq 2.5$ times the binary separation after mass transfer. Accounting for tides by using the interior stellar structure, we find that tidal effects become apparent after the rapid mass transfer phase and start to fade away during the latter stage of the slow mass transfer phase. Our research provides a new framework for exploring circumbinary planet dynamics in interacting binary systems.

Keywords
  • Planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability
  • Planet
  • Star interactions
  • Binaries: close
  • Subdwarfs
Funding
  • Kavli Foundation -
  • China Scholarship Council -
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant - [101034413]
Citation (ISO format)
XING, Zepei et al. Combining REBOUND and MESA : dynamical evolution of planets orbiting interacting binaries. In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2025, vol. 537, n° 1, p. 285–292. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae2820
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Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0035-8711
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