arXiv subjects

E. Leitinger

Publications and source records attributed to E. Leitinger.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The role of mass transfer efficiency in stability criteria: Implementation in SEVN and a test on blue stragglers and binary compact objects

Context: The stability of mass transfer through Roche-lobe overflow plays a key role in shaping the outcome of binary interactions. However, the criterion for mass transfer stability remains one of the main open questions in the theory of binary evolution. Aims: We develop a mass transfer stability prescription that accounts for mass and angular momentum loss, and implement it in the population synthesis code SEVN. We assess its impact relative to the standard formalism used in SEVN, using blue stragglers and binary compact objects as illustrative cases. Methods: We derive an expression for the response of the Roche-lobe radius to mass loss in the general case where the mass and angular momentum of the system are not conserved. On the basis of this formulation, we construct a new mass transfer stability criterion that modifies the standard approach only through the Roche-lobe response term. Results: Population synthesis simulations with SEVN show that the new criterion allows stable mass transfer in binaries with higher donor-to-accretor mass ratios, leading to an overall increase in the predicted number of blue stragglers and promoting their formation in wider orbits. This contributes to reconciling the differences between theory and observations. For binary compact objects, the impact of the new stability criterion varies across system types, with the strongest effects occurring in binaries containing at least one neutron star. In particular, for low mass transfer efficiency, the new criterion enhances the contribution of channels involving stable mass transfer and leads to a larger number of systems, including gravitational wave progenitors. Conclusion: The inclusion of a new, simple, yet more consistent prescription for mass transfer stability has proven that refining this criterion can significantly improve our understanding of the formation channels of specific stellar populations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

pastamarkers 2: pasta sauce colormaps for your flavorful results

In the big data era of Astrophysics, the improvement of visualization techniques can greatly enhance the ability to identify and interpret key features in complex datasets. This aspect of data analysis will become even more relevant in the near future, with the expected growth of data volumes. With our studies, we aim to drive progress in this field and inspire further research. We present the second release of pastamarkers, a Python-based matplotlib package that we initially presented last year. In this new release we focus on big data visualization and update the content of our first release. We find that analyzing complex problems and mining large data sets becomes significantly more intuitive and engaging when using the familiar and appetizing colors of pasta sauces instead of traditional colormaps.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

A Wide-Field View on Multiple Stellar Populations in 28 Milky Way Globular Clusters

The majority of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) contain multiple stellar populations displaying specific chemical abundance variations. In particular, GCs generally contain a `primordial' population with abundances similar to field stars, along with an `enriched' population exhibiting light element anomalies. In this paper we present a homogeneous and wide-view analysis of multiple stellar populations in 28 Galactic GCs. By using a combination of HST photometry together with wide-field, ground-based photometry we are able to analyse between 84% and 99% of all stars in each cluster. For each GC, we classify stars into separate sub-populations using the well-established $C_{\rm{UBI}}$ colour index, and investigate the spatial distributions of these populations. Our results show that dynamically young GCs can contain either centrally concentrated enriched or primordial populations, or no centrally concentrated population. Dynamically old GCs show fully mixed populations as expected. The existence of clusters born with centrally concentrated primordial (and homogeneously mixed) populations exacerbates the mass-budget problem facing many cluster formation scenarios. The diversity in these results also highlights the need for additional theories that can account for the wide variety of initial conditions that we find. We finally investigate the enriched star fraction as a function of different global parameters in our GC sample, using also data for young and low-mass clusters from the Small- and Large Magellanic Clouds and confirm earlier results that the enriched star fraction strongly correlates with the initial mass of a cluster.

astro-ph.GA↗