Collisions of giant stars with compact objects - Hydrodynamical calculations

Smooth particle hydrodynamics are used here to model encounters between an 0.8 solar mass giant star and a 1.4 solar mass compact object on a parabolic orbit. It is found that all encounters with periastron distance r(p) less than about 2.5 stellar radii R(G) lead to significant disruption of the stellar envelope, including some mass loss. When r(p)/R(G) is less than about 0.5, the envelope is completely destroyed during the collision. About 40 percent of the gas escapes, while the rest forms a massive disk around the compact object, leaving behind the bare stellar core on a highly eccentric orbit. Subsequent close passages lead to continuous extraction of gas from the disk at a large rate, and the binary orbit may eventually stabilize while still retaining a large eccentricity. It is suggested that many globular cluster pulsars may have been spun up by accretion from a massive disk rather than from a binary companion, thereby providing a possible solution to the birthrate problem.