Professor John M. Blondin
Department of Physics, North Carolina State University
4 PM, Thursday, October 2, 1997
Room 101, Olin Physical Laboratory
The interaction of close binary stars provides for a wide variety of peculiar objects scattered throughout our Galaxy. The unique features of Algols, Symbiotics, X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables and many others are linked to the dynamics of the circumstellar gas; from tidal streams and accretion disks to colliding stellar winds. Like many other areas of astrophysics, large scale computing has provided a new perspective in the study of interacting binaries. In the research to be described, hydrodynamic simulations are used to create a "laboratory", within which one can "experiment": change the system and observe (and predict) the effects of those changes. This type of numerical experimentation provides a means of interpreting observations, identifying and understanding the relevant physics, and visualizing the physical system. The results of such experiments will be shown, including the formation of a tidal stream in Roche lobe overflow systems, mass accretion in X-ray binaries, and the formation and dynamics of accretion disks.