Common-envelope parameter dependence of Wolf–Rayet binary formation

Investigate how the common-envelope efficiency and stellar-structure parameter affect the contribution of common-envelope evolution to the population of Wolf–Rayet binaries predicted by POSYDON.

Background

The study finds that common-envelope evolution produces only a small fraction of the modeled Wolf–Rayet binaries, with most systems involving a stellar companion merging and surviving systems with black-hole companions forming very tight orbits. Because the predicted contribution of this channel depends on common-envelope prescriptions, determining its sensitivity to the adopted parameters is necessary for assessing whether systems such as Cygnus X-3 can constrain common-envelope physics.

References

We additionally find that common envelope evolution only produces a small number of WR binaries in POSYDON, but we have not explored the effect of the CE parameter in this work.

— Metallicity dependence of Wolf-Rayet binaries using detailed binary models: An absence of long-period systems at low metallicity  (2609.05398 - Briel et al., 4 Sep 2026) in Section 6, Conclusions