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Astrophys Space Sci (2009) 319: 4553 DOI 10.1007/s10509-008-9946-9
O R I G I NA L A RT I C L E
Effect of Coriolis force on the shapes of rotating stars and stars in binary systems
A.K. Lal Ankush Pathania C. Mohan
Received: 19 May 2008 / Accepted: 4 November 2008 / Published online: 21 November 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract In this paper an attempt has been made to determine the effect of Coriolis force on the shapes of Roche equipotential surfaces of rotating stars and stars in binary systems. Equations of Roche equipotential surfaces have been obtained for rotating and binary stars which take into account the effects of Coriolis force besides the centrifugal and gravitational forces. Shapes of Roche equipotentials and values of Roche limits are obtained for different values of angular velocity of rotation for rotating stars and for different values of mass ratios for the binary stars. The obtained results have been compared with the corresponding results in which the effect of Coriolis force has not been considered.
Keywords Binary stars Rotating stars Roche limit
Coriolis force Roche equipotential
1 Introduction
Analytic studies of the problems of rotating stars and binary stars have engaged the attention of astrophysicists since long with a view to analyze and understand the observational behavior of such stars. A large number of stars observed in the
A.K. Lal ( ) A. Pathania
School of Mathematics and Computer Applications, Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, Indiae-mail: mailto:[email protected]
Web End [email protected]
C. MohanIIT, Roorkee, Uttaranchal, India
Present address:C. MohanAmbala College of Engineering & Applied Research, Devasthali, Ambala Cantt., Haryana, India
sky are rotating stars or binary stars. In a binary system of stars the two stars normally rotate about their own axes as well as revolve about their common center of mass. In a majority of binary stars, one star called primary, is generally more massive compared to its companion star. Contact binaries have also been observed in which outermost surfaces of the two stars just touch each other.
Kopal (1972) introduced the concept of Roche equipotentials to analyze the problems of rotating stars and stars in binary systems. Since then several authors such as Kopal (1978, 1980, 1981, 1989), Kopal and Song (1983), Eggleton (1983), Mohan...