High Angular Resolution Investigations of Binary Stars and their Disks

高角分辨率天文中心(CHARA)光学干涉仪阵列。威尔逊是美国首屈一指的高角分辨率天文学设备。这项计划描述了一项研究双星及其周围形成的气体和尘埃盘的计划。对于最近的和最大的例子，现在可以使用CHARA获得这些碎片盘的图像。该计划的第一部分旨在确定双星轨道相对于其周围圆盘的方向。第二部分是对正在经历恒星间强烈质量交换阶段的双星系统的调查。第三部分将是一个程序，对一组恒星盘进行成像，并搜索旋臂的迹象。最后，他们将使用查拉在其他系统中搜索微弱的同伴。该计划将直接支持在运营查拉阵列的佐治亚州立大学继续培训一名研究科学家、一名博士后助理和几名博士生。这项工作将在GSU教授的本科课程中得到强调，GSU的学生人口非常多样化，其中有很大一部分是少数民族，高级本科生将参加Chara的工作。该小组还将支持在格拉斯哥州立大学和Mt.该项目将为我们提供有关双星系统年轻时的盘以及在它们通过质量转移和损失而转变之后的基本数据。对碎片盘中双星的研究将展示盘如何形成双星，以及一旦形成，双星系统如何在盘中植入结构，这将影响行星形成的地点和方式。对强相互作用双星周围的外双星圆盘的探测将告诉我们，在质量传递的峰值期间，系统损失了多少质量和角动量。对Be恒星盘状结构的观察将提供测试潮汐过程和盘状扰动模式理论的手段，这些理论对于我们理解恒星和行星的形成、X射线双星中的吸积过程以及超大质量黑洞的吸积过程非常重要。探测到绕着快速旋转的恒星运行的质量供体残留物将揭示双星演化的产物，并阐明导致其他质量转移产物(大质量X射线双星、缺氢超新星、长时间伽马射线爆发、中子星、黑洞和合并产生的引力波)的过程。这一奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) optical interferometer array on Mt. Wilson is the nation's premiere facility for high angular resolution astronomy. This proposal describes a program to investigate binary stars and the disks of gas and dust that form around them. Images of these debris disks can now be obtained for the closest and largest examples using CHARA. The first part of the program is aimed at determining the orientation of the binary orbits with respect to their surrounding disks. The second part is a survey of binary systems that are undergoing an intense stage of mass exchange between the stars. The third part will be a program to image a set of stellar disks and search for indications of spiral arms. Finally, they will use CHARA to search for faint companions in other systems. The program will directly support the continued training of a research scientist, a postdoctoral associate, and several Ph.D. students at Georgia State University, which operates the CHARA array. The work will be highlighted in the undergraduate courses taught at GSU, which has a very diverse student population with a large minority component, and advanced undergraduates will participate in work at CHARA. The team will also support public outreach efforts at GSU and at Mt. Wilson, including the renewal of exhibits at the CHARA Visitors Gallery.The project will provide us with fundamental data on binary star systems with disks in their youth and after their transformation through mass transfer and loss. The study of binaries in debris disks will show how disks act to form binary stars and, once formed, how the binary systems implant structures in the disks that will influence where and how planets are formed. Detection of circumbinary disks around strongly interacting binaries will show us how much mass and angular momentum are lost from the system during the peak of mass transfer. Observations of structures in the disks of Be stars will provide the means to test theories of tidal processes and disk perturbation modes that are important in our understanding of star and planet formation, accretion processes in X-ray binaries, and accretion onto supermassive black holes. Detection of the mass donor remnants orbiting rapidly rotating stars will reveal the products of binary star evolution and shed light on the processes that lead to other products of mass transfer (massive X-ray binaries, hydrogen deficient supernovae, long duration gamma-ray bursts, neutron stars, black holes, and gravitational waves from mergers).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.