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view Abstract Citations (75) References (16) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Three-dimensional Hydrodynamical Simulations of Colliding Stars. III. Collisions and Tidal Captures of Unequal-Mass Main-Sequence Stars Benz, W. ; Hills, J. G. Abstract A 3D smooth-particle hydrodynamic code with 7000 particles is used to simulate collisions between lower main sequence (MS) stars whose masses differ by a factor of five. Collisions between point-mass intruders and MS stars are simulated to study how the physics of the encounters depends on the finite radius of the smaller MS stars. It is found that the two MS stars become gravitationally bound in a physical collision if their relative velocity at infinity is less than a critical velocity Vd. Vd decreases from 1000 km/s in a head-on collision to 150 km/s in a grazing one. If the less massive star is replaced by a point mass, Vd remains the same for grazing collision and tidal encounters but drops to about 600 km/s in head-on collisions. The collision and coalescence of two MS stars resets the nuclear clock of the coalesced star, so it contracts to the MS. Tidal capture of binary stars in globular clusters can only occur in encounters in which the closest approach of the two stars to their center of mass is less than 2.0 times the sum of their radii. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: April 1992 DOI: 10.1086/171230 Bibcode: 1992ApJ...389..546B Keywords: Celestial Mechanics; Computational Astrophysics; Globular Clusters; Hydrodynamics; Main Sequence Stars; Three Dimensional Models; Binary Stars; Galactic Nuclei; Runge-Kutta Method; Stellar Mass; Astrophysics; CELESTIAL MECHANICS; STELLAR DYNAMICS; GALAXY: GLOBULAR CLUSTERS: GENERAL; HYDRODYNAMICS; METHODS: NUMERICAL full text sources ADS | Related Materials (2) Part 1: 1987ApJ...323..614B Part 2: 1989ApJ...342..986B
Benz et al. (Wed,) studied this question.