We study the effect of the kick velocity – neutron star spin alignment observed in young radio pulsars on the coalescence rate of binary neutron stars. The effect is shown to be especially strong for large kick amplitudes and tight alignments, reducing the galactic rate of binary neutron star coalescences up to an order of magnitude with respect to the rates calculated for random kicks. The spi...

An AGB star in a binary system is likely to pollute its companion with carbon-and s-process-rich matter. After the AGB star has faded into an unconspicuous white dwarf, the polluted companion enters the zoo of stars with chemical peculiarities. In this paper, the progeny of AGB stars in binary systems are identified among existing spectroscopic classes (Abell 35-like, binary post-AGB, WIRRing, ...

Current and future techniques relevant to binary-star observations are reviewed. Binary-star science is not driving present and future instrumentation, but does benefit from it. Data mining opens new perspectives. Increased data flow and sample sizes call for a new approach to maintaining the catalogs, which otherwise will collapse. We discuss high-resolution and high-contrast imaging with adap...

We have used infrared polarimetric imaging with NICMOS to determine precisely the position of the star that illuminates (and presumably generated) the bipolar, pre-planetary reflection nebula RAFGL 2688 (the Egg Nebula). The polarimetric data pinpoint the illuminating star, which is not detected directly at wavelengths ≤ 2 μm, at a position well within the dark lane that bisects the nebula, 0. ...

The condition that the radius of one component of a binary star is equal to that of its Roche lobe has so far been used as a criterion for the occurrence of mass transfer. However, this criterion is only approximate. It is introduced for the simplification of the calculations from three-dimensions to onedimension. A modified criterion is introduced, which is more strict and can also be used in ...