1. Orbital evolution of compact Black-hole binaries and white dwarf binaries Astro-ph/0511760 Astro-ph/0510331 Wencong Chen

2. Astro-ph/0511760 Magnetic braking of Ap/Bp stars: application to compact BH X-ray binaries 1.Introduction: Conventional magnetic braking (MB): radiative envelopes inoperative, Md<1.5 solar mass Author’s suggestion: Compact binaries with Ap & Bp stars Irradiation driven stellar wind Lead to significant MB

3. 9 of 17 compact BH X-ray binaries: P<1d, Md<1 solar mass Galactic: 1000 short period BH binaries (Wijers, 96; Romani, 98) How to form short period and low donor mass BH binaries? Intermediate mass (IM) star with Strong magnetic field, irradiation driven wind A plausible AM loss mechanism Produce short period low mass BH binaries

4. 2. Assumptions and derivations: Assume wind corotates out to magnetospheric radius Loss rate of AM due to MB:

5. 2.1 estimate of the required wind loss rate Mass conservative If adot<0

6. For a typical mass ratio Mass –radius relation of donor star

7. 2.2 Irradiation driven winds Stellar wind was driven irradiation in compact binaries ( Ruderman 89) Irradiation stellar wind loss rate Wind driving parameter maximum

8. 2.3 analytic results for MB torque: Total AM of system Mass conservative and adot=0

10. 2.4 effects on the canonical LMXB population

11. 3. BH binary populations Suggest part of IM star possess strong magnetic field (Ap,Bp stars) New MB in strong field systems via irradiation induced stellar wind Cause a subset of BH binaries to evolve to short periods Assume Bs is a constant, even during mass loss Use an updated version of Eggleton’s code Initial conditions:

13. 3.1 long and short period: population statistics Ap stars ~5% in A stars Zero magnetic field: 0.2-0.4Gyr Strong field: 10Gyr

14. 3.2 observational test: spectral types

15. 4. Summary and conclusions New MB can cause BH binaries involving Ap/Bp donor stars to evolve to short periods (P<10hr) BH binaries with IM donor star is reasonable than ones with low mass donor star Author’s model is successful at reproducing the short periods and low donor mass Shortcoming: Calculative effective temperatures are significantly higher that for those of the observed donor stars.

16. Astro-ph/0510331 Detection of a period decrease in NN Ser with ULTRACAM: evidence for strong magnetic braking or an unseen companion 1.introduction: CVs: white dwarf primary low mass main sequence secondary Main period distribution: 1.3-10 hours Two major features: Period gap 2-3 hours period minimum 1.3 hour Standard model

17. In this paper: Measure mid-eclipse timing find period change To calculate AM loss Pdot~5*10^(-4) s /yr Contamination of light curve by accretion process So choose pre-CV NN ser High time resolution of ULTRACAM ~0.15S NN ser: WD and M dwarf with ~0.15 solar mass Deeply eclipsing >4.8mag, strong reflection effect ~0.6mag Orbital period 0.13days

18. 2. Analysis & results: A best fit linear ephemeris A best fit quadratic ephemeris Eclipse time Rate of period decrease

19. The average rate of period change The current rate of period change

20. 3. discussion- mechanisms for period changes: Applegate’s mechanism (92) Presence of third body in a long orbit around binary A genuine AM loss 3.1 Applegate’s mechanism Gravitational coupling Shape change of secondary Change of quadrupole moment Period change

22. 3.2 third body Light travel time variation leads to period change 0.0043 solar mass < M3 < 0.18 solar mass 30yr < P3 < 285 yr A low mass companion could cause the observed changes in mid-eclipse timings

23. 3.3 AM loss models 1. Gravitational radiation 2. Standard MB (Rappaport, 83)

24. 3. Reduced MB (Sills, 2000)

26. 4. conclusions: Two possible explanations: Presence of a third body Genuine AM loss: standard MB by Rappaport, no cut off Reduced MB underestimate ~ 2 orders of magnitude