Invited Presentation

Common Envelope Evolution of Massive Binaries

Author(s): Paul Ricker (UIUC); Ronald Taam (NWU); Ronald Webbink (UIUC); Frank Timmes (ASU); Miguel Holgado (UIUC); Jingyao Zhu (UIUC); Eliu Huerta (NCSA)

Presenter: Paul Ricker (University of Illinois)

The discovery via gravitational waves of binary black hole systems with total masses greater than 60M⊙ has raised
interesting questions for stellar evolution theory. Among the most promising formation channels for these systems is
one involving a common envelope binary containing a low metallicity, core helium burning star with mass ∼ 80 – 90M⊙
and a black hole with mass ∼ 30 – 40M⊙ . For this channel to be viable, the common envelope binary must eject more
than half the giant star's mass and reduce its orbital separation by as much as a factor of 80. I will discuss issues
faced in numerically simulating the common envelope evolution of such systems and present a 3D AMR simulation of
the dynamical inspiral of a low-metallicity red supergiant with a massive black hole companion.