Eccentricity Pumping Through Circumbinary Disks in Hot Subdwarf Binaries

Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Abstract

Hot subdwarf-B stars in long-period binaries are found to be on eccentric orbits, even though current binary-evolution theory predicts these objects to be circularized before the onset of Roche-lobe overflow (RLOF). We have tested three different eccentricity pumping processes on their viability to reproduce the observed wide sdB population; tidally-enhanced wind mass-loss, phase-dependent RLOF on eccentric orbits and the interaction between a circumbinary (CB) disk and the binary. The binary module of the stellar-evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) is extended to include the eccentricity-pumping processes, and a parameter study is carried out. We find that models including phase-dependent RLOF or a CB disk can reach the observed periods and eccentricities. However, the models cannot explain the observed correlation between period and eccentricity. Nor can circular short period systems be formed when eccentricity pumping mechanisms are active.