Mass-Orbital Period Distribution of Massive White Dwarfs Formed Through Stable Mass Transfer
Abstract
White dwarfs (WDs) in binaries can form through either the stable mass-transfer process or common envelope evolution (CEE). Compared to CEE, the stable mass-transfer process can lead to a distinct mass−orbital period (M WD-P orb) relation. Thus, this relation of WDs contains the information about the evolution channels. We can study the relation in WD binary systems to determine whether their progenitors undergo a CEE. We use the stellar evolution code MESA as our primary computational tool and adopt the quasi-adiabatic criterion to ensure that our models satisfy the conditions for stable mass transfer. Our study considers different mass-transfer schemes, varying metallicities, and the relation for both low-mass and intermediate-mass progenitors. Previous studies have focused on the relation for low-mass progenitors, which cannot explain some long-period, high-mass WD binaries. Our results show that the M WD-P orb distribution for intermediate-mass progenitors whose cores remain nondegenerate prior to central helium burning can account for the formation channels of long-period and massive WD binaries.
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BibTeX
@misc{zheng2026massorbital,
title = {{Mass-Orbital Period Distribution of Massive White Dwarfs Formed Through Stable Mass Transfer}},
author = {Rizhong Zheng and Hongwei Ge and Christopher A Tout and Hailiang Chen and Zhenwei Li and Dengkai Jiang and Chengyuan Li and Zhijia Tian and Bo Ma and Lifu Zhang and Jian Mou and Xuefei Chen and Zhanwen Han},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.06141},
eprint = {2606.06141},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06141},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Mass-Orbital Period Distribution of Massive White Dwarfs Formed Through Stable Mass Transfer
AU - Rizhong Zheng
AU - Hongwei Ge
AU - Christopher A Tout
AU - Hailiang Chen
AU - Zhenwei Li
AU - Dengkai Jiang
AU - Chengyuan Li
AU - Zhijia Tian
AU - Bo Ma
AU - Lifu Zhang
AU - Jian Mou
AU - Xuefei Chen
AU - Zhanwen Han
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.06141
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06141
AB - White dwarfs (WDs) in binaries can form through either the stable mass-transfer process or common envelope evolution (CEE). Compared to CEE, the stable mass-transfer process can lead to a distinct mass−orbital period (M_ WD-P_ orb) relation. Thus, this relation of WDs contains the information about the evolution channels. We can study the relation in WD binary systems to determine whether their progenitors undergo a CEE. We use the stellar evolution code MESA as our primary computational tool and adopt the quasi-adiabatic criterion to ensure that our models satisfy the conditions for stable mass transfer. Our study considers different mass-transfer schemes, varying metallicities, and the relation for both low-mass and intermediate-mass progenitors. Previous studies have focused on the relation for low-mass progenitors, which cannot explain some long-period, high-mass WD binaries. Our results show that the M_ WD-P_ orb distribution for intermediate-mass progenitors whose cores remain nondegenerate prior to central helium burning can account for the formation channels of long-period and massive WD binaries.
ER -