Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title：Bridging the gap between luminous red novae and common envelope evolution with radiation hydrodynamic models

Speaker：Chen Zhuo (Tsinghua University)

Time：3:00 pm April 11th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：42915400486 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Report in English

Abstract：

Luminous red novae and their connection to common envelope evolution (CEE) remain elusive in astrophysics. Here, we present a radiation hydrodynamic model capable of simulating the light curves of material ejected during a CEE. For the first time, the radiation hydrodynamic model incorporates complete recombination physics for hydrogen and helium. The radiation hydrodynamic equations are solved with Guangqi. With time-independent ejecta simulations, we show that the peaks in the light curves are attributed to radiation-dominated ejecta, while the extended plateaus are produced by matter-dominated ejecta. To showcase our model’s capability, we fit the light curve of AT 2019zhd. The central mass object of 6 Msun is assumed based on observations and scaling relations. Our model demonstrates that the ejecta mass of AT 2019zhd falls within the range of 0.04–0.1 Msun. Additionally, we demonstrate that recombination energy and radiation force acceleration significantly impact the light curves, whereas dust formation has a limited effect during the peak and plateau phases.

CV：Chen Zhuo is now an associate research professor in IASTU at Tsinghua University. He graduated from the University Rochester in 2018 with a Ph.D. degree. Chen's research interests include radiation hydrodynamics, planet formation, stellar evolution, and high-performance computing.

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