On the α formalism for the common envelope interaction
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The α formalism is a common way to parametrize the common envelope interaction between a giant star and a more compact companion. The α parameter describes the fraction of orbital energy released by the companion that is available to eject the giant star’s envelope. By using new, detailed stellar evolutionary calculations, we derive a user-friendly prescription for the λ parameter and an improved approximation for the envelope binding energy, thus revising the α equation. We then determine α both from simulations and from observations in a self-consistent manner. By using our own stellar structure models as well as population considerations to reconstruct the primary’s parameters at the time of the common envelope interaction, we gain a deeper understanding of the uncertainties. We find that systems with very low values of q (the ratio of the companion’s mass to the mass of the primary at the time of the common envelope interaction) have higher values of α. A fit to the data suggests that lower-mass companions are left at comparable or larger orbital separations to more massive companions. We conjecture that lower-mass companions take longer than a stellar dynamical time to spiral into the giant’s core, and that this is key to allowing the giant to use its own thermal energy to help unbind its envelope. As a result, although systems with light companions might not have enough orbital energy to unbind the common envelope, they might stimulate a stellar reaction that results in the common envelope ejection.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.009 | 0.005 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".