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# SED Signatures of Jovian Planets Around White Dwarf Stars

## 1 Introduction

There is tremendous excitement in the astronomical community regarding recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and future projects for accelerating detection rates and expanding the range of planetary types that can be observed (e.g., see reviews by Marcy & Butler 1998; Woolf & Angel 1998). The method which has been so successful in the ongoing discovery of extra-solar planets is based on Doppler shift observations of stellar photospheric lines, an indirect method for inferring the presence of an orbiting companion (e.g., Mayor & Queloz 1995; Marcy & Butler 1996; Butler & Marcy 1996). Other methods have been used in the search for extra-solar planets but without as much success as the Doppler technique. For example, direct detection through imaging is hampered both by the faintness of planets and the brightness of the central stars. Transit events are similarly difficult to detect owing to the small brightness variations of the star and the requirement for a special viewing orientation; however, the transit of HD 209458 by its planetary companion demonstrates the tremendous potential for gleaning important information about a planet during such occurrences (Charbonneau et al. 2000; Henry et al. 2000; Brown et al. 2001).

Some have considered the possibility of detecting planets around White Dwarf stars. The problem has been approached from several different directions. For example, Provencal (1997) has discussed the possibility of phase analysis techniques for pulsating White Dwarfs. Li, Ferrario, & Wickramasinghe (1998) consider methods based on the interaction of Jovian planets with the magnetosphere of the White Dwarf (in analogy to the Jupiter-Io system). Chu et al. (2001) discuss a technique based on hydrogen recombination lines formed in the Jovian atmosphere for planets around UV-bright White Dwarfs. Livio, Pringle, & Saffer (1992) comment that an Earth-like planet with a temperature of 300 K would produce an IR excess of about 1% of the White Dwarf continuum emission. The contribution of this paper is to consider the IR excess for Jovian-type planets at a range of orbital radii, and to make quantitative estimates on the expected continuum emission and the number of nearby targets that could reasonably be expected to yield possible detections.

Observationally, the major advantage of searching for giant planets around White Dwarfs is that they are much smaller in diameter than solar-type Main Sequence stars. They also tend to be somewhat hotter than G dwarfs. Using the 4th editionof the Catalog of Spectroscopically Idenfitifed White Dwarfs (McCook & Sion 1999), Holberg, Oswalt, & Sion (2001) have identified the known White Dwarf stars within 20 pcs. Using the type designation provided in their Table 1 to estimate effective surface temperatures, I find an average value of about 8700 K for 103 stars (approximately one-fourth of the stars have temperatures in excess of 10000 K, up to about 25000 K). In the net, White Dwarfs tend to have luminosities of about a thousand times smaller than solar-type stars. So there is potentially a strong gain in the brightness contrast of a planet around a White Dwarf star when compared to a late-type Main Sequence star.

However, it is not quite so straightforward. Consider the elementary expression for the temperature $`T_P`$ of a planet with an albedo, $`A_P`$, in a circular orbit of radius $`d_P`$ about a White Dwarf of radius $`R_{WD}`$ and temperature $`T_{WD}`$:

$$T_P=T_{WD}(1A_P)^{1/4}\left(\frac{R_{WD}}{2d_P}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(1)
The ratio of Bolometric luminosities between the planet and the White Dwarf will be

$$\frac{L_P}{L_{WD}}=\frac{R_P^2T_P^4}{R_{WD}^2T_{WD}^4}=\left(\frac{R_P}{2d_P}\right)^2(1A_P),$$
(2)
so that the Bolometric brightness contrast between the planet and star does not actually depend on the star at all, only the radius of the planet, its distance from the star, and the albedo. (Of course, cooler stars will be fainter, and all things being equal, their planets will be cooler and fainter too, so that longer integration times will be needed to reach a given detection threshold.) On the other hand, the orbits of planets can drastically change during a star’s post-Main Sequence evolution, such as might occur during a common envelope phase (e.g., Livio & Soker 1984). It may be possible that $`d_P`$ could degrade to small values. In some cases a low-mass companion will spiral into the star during its bloated AGB phase; in other cases a companion may drift to orbits of larger size. Given that the discovery of large planets orbiting solar-type stars with periods of a few days came as a great surprise to the astronomical community, nature may have a way of placing Jovian planets in orbits of small or modest size ($`1`$ AU) around White Dwarf stars. Taking the purely empirical approach, what are the observational signatures that should be considered to determine in fact whether planets around low-mass stellar remnants are common or rare?

The approach adopted here will be to consider spectroscopic signatures in terms of the continuum energy distribution from a White Dwarf $`+`$ Jovian Planet system. These results should also be applicable to binary systems involving a White Dwarf and a Brown Dwarf (e.g., as discussed by Stringfellow, Black, & Bodenheimer 1990). If the system is a close binary, the Brown Dwarf companion might not be resolvable as a secondary source but could betray its presence through an IR excess.

The following section details the flux density estimates for such a planet orbiting a White Dwarf in terms of the central star’s temperature and the planet’s orbital proximity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the observational prospects.

## 2 The Combined Spectrum of a White Dwarf and Jovian Planet

To compute the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a White Dwarf and a planetary companion, it shall be assumed that both objects emit a blackbody spectrum. Specifying the temperature and radius of the White Dwarf allows one to calculate the planet’s temperature assuming radiative equilibrium and provided values for the albedo, planet radius, and orbital distance. However in considering a planet that orbits quite close to the White Dwarf, one cannot use the elementary form for computing the planet temperature. Also, one must realize that a Jovian planet is an order of magnitude larger than the White Dwarf. This means that the shortest orbital distance between the two is $`d_P=R_{WD}+R_PR_P`$. Actually, this is a geometric limit. A more fundamental physical barrier is the Roche limit. For a typical White Dwarf and a Jupiter-like planet, the classical Roche limit (in this case $`r_{\mathrm{clas}}=2.44R_{WD}(\rho _{WD}/\rho _P)^{1/3}`$ for a liquid spherical planet) yields a value of 270 $`R_{WD}`$, or 24 $`R_J`$. However, continuing with an exact derivation of the planet temperature yields

$$T_P=T_{WD}(1A_P)^{1/4}\left(\frac{R_{WD}}{R_P}\right)^{1/2}[W(R_P,d_P)]^{1/4},$$
(3)
where the dilution factor $`W`$ is given by

$$W(R_P,d_P)=\frac{1}{2}\left(1\sqrt{1\frac{R_P^2}{d_P^2}}\right).$$
(4)
In the limit that $`(R_P/d_P)^21`$, the dilution factor approximates to $`W0.25(R_P/d_P)^2`$, and equation (3) reduces to the standard elementary form.

Figure 1 plots curves of $`T_P`$ against the orbital distance $`d_P`$. The lower scale is for $`d_P/R_{WD}`$, and the upper scale is for the orbital period $`P`$ in days, assuming that $`R_{WD}=R_{}`$. Each curve is for a different temperature parameter $`T_0`$ associated with the White Dwarf. This parameter is defined by

$$T_0=2^{1/2}(1A_P)^{1/4}T_{WD},$$
(5)
which is essentially the constant coefficient for the elementary form of $`T_P`$ if only $`d_P/R_{WD}`$ is allowed to vary. From lower left to upper right, the curves are for $`T_0=2000`$, 4000, 8000, 16000, 28000, and 56000 K. For comparison, Chu et al. (2001) considered models with $`T_{WD}`$ in the range of 20000–200000 K for $`d_P`$ between 0.5 and 5 AU ($`10^410^5R_{WD}`$) for gas giants of $`R_P`$ between 0.5 and 5.0 $`R_J`$. Assuming $`A_P0.5`$, the curves in Figure 1 have some overlap with the temperature range considered by Chu et al., but are generally for cooler stars as appropriate for the sample of nearby White Dwarfs; however, those authors targeted hot White Dwarfs, which although fairly rare, provide the requisite UV flux for the planetary recombination line analysis that they were investigating.

Assuming that the planet has a radius like that of Jupiter, the Figure shows an excluded region at left corresponding to $`d_P<(R_J+R_{WD})`$. The arrow at bottom indicates the classical Roche limit. There is also a forbidden region at top, where the planet becomes so hot that hydrogen gas can readily escape the planet’s atmosphere. This is set by the condition that $`v_{\mathrm{th}}(\mathrm{H})\frac{1}{6}v_{\mathrm{esc}}`$, corresponding to $`T_P4100`$ K.

For a particular set of values for the White Dwarf and planet parameters, the specific fluxes are given respectively by

$$F_\nu ^{WD}=\frac{\pi R_{WD}^2}{4D^2}B_\nu (T_{WD})=(3.4\times 10^6\mathrm{mJy})\times \frac{R_{}^2}{D_{\mathrm{pc}}^2}B_\nu (T_{WD}),$$
(6)
and

$$F_\nu ^P=\frac{\pi R_P^2}{4D^2}B_\nu (T_P)=(4.2\times 10^8\mathrm{mJy})\times \frac{R_J^2}{D_{\mathrm{pc}}^2}B_\nu (T_P),$$
(7)
where $`R_{}`$ signifies the White Dwarf radius in Earth radii, $`R_J`$ signifies the planet radius in Jupiter radii, $`D_{\mathrm{pc}}`$ indicates the distance to the system in parsecs, and $`B_\nu `$ must be given in cgs units. Figure 2 shows SEDs for a White Dwarf at $`D=1`$ pc with fixed values of $`T_{WD}=10000`$ K and $`R_{WD}=R_{}`$ but Jovian sized planets of various temperatures. The frequency range spans from the UV out to the sub-mm. The dotted line is for the White Dwarf, the dashed lines for the planet, and the solid lines represent the combined spectra. The three planetary curves are for $`T_P=150`$, 225, and 450 K (this latter value is the approximately maximum possible based on the Jovian being at the classical Roche limit). The SEDs can be significantly modified from a Planckian for hot Jupiters in the IR (even the NIR for planets around hotter White Dwarfs). For cool Jupiters, the long wavelength spectral slope deviates from the power law of $`\nu ^2`$ for the Rayleigh-Jeans tail in the vicinity of the Wien peak for the planet. For warm Jupiters of several hundred Kelvin, the IR excess occurs at the level of tens of milli-Jansky. At sufficiently long wavelengths, both the planet and the White Dwarf SED will vary as $`\nu ^2`$; however, the presence of the planet can still be inferred (for a sufficiently sensitive instrument) from the excess emission. In the Rayleigh-Jeans portion for the combined spectrum, the ratio of total emission to that of just the White Dwarf will be given by $`1+(R_P^2T_P)/(R_{WD}^2T_{WD})1+100T_P/T_{WD}`$, with values ranging typically from 1 (planet not detectable) to 10 (long wavelength emission dominated by the planet). It has been assumed that for the analysis of an observed spectrum, the value of $`T_{WD}`$ is already known, and that other sources of long wavelength emission are incommensurate with the continuum slope or amount of emission.

## 3 Discussion

White Dwarfs are interesting as candidates for harboring planets because (a) planets are thought to be a common occurrence around solar-type stars, and White Dwarfs are the endstates of low-mass stellar evolution, (b) it is possible for planets to suffer orbital degradation during evolved stages of evolution, and (c) White Dwarfs are fairly common ($`10^2`$ pc-3) and thus there are a significant number of them to be found in the locale of the Sun. This paper reports on the possibility of detecting extra-solar planets around White Dwarf stars through an analysis of SEDs. The Roche limit is found to be an important limiting factor on the temperature and hence brightness of planets. Using the classical limit, the planet cannot orbit any closer than about 24 $`R_J`$, and so its temperature is limited to $`T_P0.043T_{WD}`$. This means that the typical nearby White Dwarfs could have warm Jupiters, but not hot ones. The primary observational diagnostics arise from (a) an IR “bump”, or softening of the power law spectral index, in the SED around the vicinity of the Wien peak for the planet but well into the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the White Dwarf, or (b) significant excess emission in the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the combined emission.

In the tabulation of nearby White Dwarf stars, Holberg et al. (2001) determine that the catalog is complete to 13 pcs, and that there are 51 White Dwarfs within a spherical volume of that radius (from their Tab. 1). Of these, 17 are binary systems (two are double-degenerate systems), leaving 32 single star candidates to target for a search of planetary companions. The SEDs in Figure 2 were computed for a White Dwarf at 1 pc. A “warm” Jupiter of a few hundred Kelvin orbiting a White Dwarf at a distance of 10 pc should have a flux density at its Wien peak (10–30 microns) that is comparable to that of a 10000 K White Dwarf with a value in the range of 10–100 micro-Janskys. Such faint signals should be detectable, for example, with SIRTF. The IRAC camera conducts IR photometry at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns (with bandpasses of 1–2 microns in width). At 8.0 microns, the IRAC can detect an 18 micro-Jansky source at $`5\sigma `$ in about 8 minutes (less time is required at the shorter wavelengths). This would be sufficient to determine whether or not a White Dwarf exhibited an IR excess. For the same time and S/N, the low resolution short wavelength spectrograph on the IRS could build up a spectrum for a 550 micro-Jansky source in the range 5–14 microns. (Observing time estimates for both IRAC and IRS are based on information provided by the SIRTF Science Center at the web site http://sirtf.caltech.edu/SciUser/.)

One consideration that has been neglected is the possibility that the planet might show brightness variations with orbital phase. If a planet is relatively close to the star, it might be in synchronous orbit (however the timescale for spin locking the secondary depends sensitively on $`d_P/R_{WD}`$ with the 6th power; e.g., see Trilling 2000). If so, then one would generally expect variable brightness of the planet as the “day” and “night” sides alternately face the Earth during the planet’s orbit. At just a few hundred $`R_{WD}`$ distant (or tens of $`R_J`$), the orbital period would be only a few hours. However, it is not clear how discrepant the day-night temperatures will be to yield IR variations. Changes in the brightness at UV and optical wavelengths could vary by as much as $`1\pm A_P(\lambda )R_P^2/4d_P^2`$ for a suitable viewing perspective, with $`A_P(\lambda )`$ the wavelength dependent reflectivity of the Jovian atmosphere. For the classical Roche limit, the minimum orbital radius will be about $`d_P24R_J`$, so that even if $`A_P`$ were unity, the maximum brightness variation in reflected light would be 0.04%.

It is worth noting that the reflex motion of the star from the presence of the orbiting planet might be measurable. Observed Balmer lines tend to have broad sloping wings but a relatively narrow absorption core. For example, the core widths in the H$`\alpha `$ profiles of Heber, Napiwotzki, & Reid (1997) and Koester et al. (1998) are around 1 Å, corresponding to velocity widths of 40–50 km s-1. Although the typical critical speed of rotation for a White Dwarf is quite high ($`v_{\mathrm{crit}}4600`$ km/s-1), the observations are consistent with little or no rotation (e.g., upper limits of tens of km s-1 from Heber et al. 1997 and Koester et al. 1998). For purposes of a quantitative estimate, consider a White Dwarf of $`1M_{}`$ with a core line width of about 40 km s-1, and a planet of $`1M_J`$ orbiting at $`1000R_{WD}`$ with a period of about 3.2 days. Assuming a circular orbit, as has been the case throughout this paper, the reflex motion imparted to the star will be $`150`$ m s-1. However, the problem with White Dwarfs is that they are generally faint. Of the local sample, the brightest star is about $`m_V=10.5`$, and most are fainter than 12th magnitude. To detect the reflex motion of such a speed with 10% accuracy would require a spectral resolution $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =2\times 10^6`$ (or at least a centroiding algorithm to that accuracy), which demands long integration times on large telescopes for such faint targets. Note that Jovians at smaller $`d_P`$ would produce larger reflex motions in the central star as $`d_P^{1/2}`$; however, the orbital period decreases as $`d_P^{3/2}`$, placing an additional constraint on the integration time.

Finally in closing, the SEDs have been derived under the simplifying assumption of blackbody source functions. The gas giant would be expected to show absorption features by molecules, for example, and these would modify the quantitative predictions of the run of flux density with frequency for the combined SEDs. Modification of the planet temperature by internal heat has also been ignored. Three of the gas giants in our solar system show excess IR emission by about 50% above what is absorbed in sunlight. Even so, the results presented in this paper provide quantitative flux density values that are likely adequate for motivating a search of planets around the nearest single White Dwarf stars.

It is with great pleasure that I thank Steve Spangler for comments on an early draft of this paper. I also wish to express appreciation to an anonymous referee who made several valuable comments. This work was supported by a NSF grant (AST-9986915).


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# Lifetime of d-holes at Cu surfaces: Theory and experiment

## I Introduction

Electron and hole dynamics in the bulk as well as at the various surfaces of a solid play a key role in a great number of physical and chemical phenomenadai95 ; petek97 ; petek00 . These range from photon-induced surface reactions at metals to device-physical applications in semiconducting nanostructures. It is evident that both reliable experimental information and detailed theoretical understanding are necessary prerequisites for any future application-oriented tailoring of dynamical electronic properties. Seen from theory any excitation of an electron-hole quasiparticle reflects basic properties of the solid as a correlated many-electron system, which must necessarily be described with inclusion of the very details of band structure, symmetry and dimensionality, and also the various excitation and decay channels. From the experimental point of view, additional contributions to experimental spectra result from effects like coupling of electrons and holes to phonons and their scattering with structural defects, and it is a sometimes tedious task to distinguish these effects unambiguouslymatzdorf98 ; theilmann97 .

At present our quantitative understanding of the excitation mechanisms and their relaxation channels is far from being complete: There is ample experimental evidence from experiments at copper surfacespawlik97 ; knoesel98 ; petek00.2  that hot-electron lifetimes $`\tau `$ probed by time-resolved two-photon photoemission (TR-TPPE) techniques do not follow an inverse quadratic dependence $`\tau (EE_F)^2`$, which would result from simple phase-space considerationsechenique00 . In contrast, an analysis of the standing-wave patterns observed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy on Cu(111) has been shown to yield an accurate quadratic behaviour in the same energy range, i.e. up to about $`3\mathrm{eV}`$ above the Fermi level $`E_F`$ buergi99 . In this tunneling experiment electrons are injected into a well-defined surface state band, and the coherence length $`l`$ is then derived from the spatial damping of the standing-wave pattern produced by repeated reflections between parallel steps. Simple and reliable model assumptions connect $`l`$ with $`\tau `$ and allow the determination of $`\tau (EE_F)`$. TR-TPPE, however, uses femtosecond pump-probe techniques to monitor the time-dependent occupation of the intermediate energy levels. These may have decay and excitation channels which differ from those of the tunneling experiment. One aspect appears particularly important: Photons with typical energies of $`34\mathrm{eV}`$ do not only probe $`sp`$-like bulk and surface electrons, but in some cases also electrons from occupied $`d`$-bands are excitedpawlik97 ; knoesel98 ; petek00.2 ; matzdorf99 . Regarding the above mentioned TR-TPPE-experiments on copper, where the upper edge of the $`d`$-bands is located $`2.0\mathrm{eV}`$ below the Fermi level, a still ongoing debate considers whetherknoesel98  or notpetek00.2  Auger recombination of long-lived $`d`$-holes contributes significantly to the hot-electron generation.

Since neither the magnitude nor the energy dependence of $`d`$-hole lifetimes is precisely known, we consider this subject to be of significant current interest. The new experimental data for copper presented in this paper were obtained using one-photon photoemission spectroscopykevan92 ; huefner95 . This technique allows to determine lifetimes only from a detailed analysis of linewidthssmith93 ; mcdougall95 , and requires simultaneously low temperatures, excellent energy as well as angular resolution and in general tunable photon energy. This expense is more than compensated by the very detailed understanding of the one-photon excitation channel and the possibility to locate a photo-hole exactly with respect to both initial-state energy $`E_i`$ and wave vector $`𝐤`$. Recent calculations have shown that any reliable theory of hot-electron and hole lifetimes in metals must go beyond a free-electron description of the solid campillo00 ; schoene00 ; campillopress . In Sec. III of this paper we compare many-body quasiparticle GW calculations of $`d`$-hole lifetimes in copper, which have already been presented in Ref. campillopress, , to our photoemission data.

## II Experimental results

### II.1 Experimental setup

Our experiments with synchrotron radiation were performed at the storage ring Bessy I in Berlin. Normal emission photoelectron spectra were collected using the 2m-Seya beamline and a high-resolution photoemission station described and characterized in detail in Ref. janowitz99, . The sample is mounted on a manipulator cryostat having five degrees of freedom: $`x,y,z`$ translation, rotation around the manipulator axis and rotation around the surface normal, the latter one being particularly useful for polarization dependent suppression of individual photoemission lines. The sample temperature could be varied between $`20\mathrm{K}`$ and room temperature. A sample load lock system with a transfer rod allows to decouple the sample from the manipulator for preparation by argon ion bombardment and annealing. The energy resolution including the photon monochromator was set to $`30\mathrm{meV}`$, as verified by the analysis of the Fermi edge emission taken at $`T=22\mathrm{K}`$. The angular resolution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =\pm 1^{}`$ is sufficient for normal emission spectra taken at flat bands. The experiments with Cu(100) were performed using a Scienta high-resolution photoelectron spectrometer in our home laboratory. It is equipped with facilities for LEED, monochromatized XPS and UPS, the standard methods for sample cleaning and annealing, and a closed-cycle refrigerator for sample cooling. The spectra reported below were excited using monochromatized HeII radiation ($`\mathrm{}\omega =40.8\mathrm{eV}`$) from a Gammadata microwave light source. The angular resolution was estimated to be about $`\pm 0.5^{}`$; the energy resolution was better than $`8\mathrm{meV}`$.

The copper samples were oriented to better than $`\pm 0.25^{}`$, polished first mechanically and then electrochemically. After insertion into the UHV chamber they were cleaned and prepared by repeated cycles of argon ion bombardment and an extended annealing procedure at $`T=700\mathrm{K}`$. The high surface quality had been verified experimentally: In these measurements we obtained very sharp LEED spot profiles of about 1% of the surface Brillouin zone diameter and, even more significant, sharp photoemission peaks: The Shockley-type surface state on Cu(110), residing at $`E_i=0.43\mathrm{eV}`$ around the $`\overline{Y}`$-pointkevan92 ; huefner95 , shows a linewidth of less than $`80\mathrm{meV}`$ (FWHM) at room temperature. The width of the $`d`$-like Tamm surface state on Cu(100), residing at $`E_i=1.80\mathrm{eV}`$ around the $`\overline{M}`$-point of the corresponding surface Brillouin zonetheilmann97 , is $`35\mathrm{meV}`$ at room temperature.

### II.2 Linewidth information

An experimental photoemission linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ generally has contributions from both the electron and the hole lifetime. This is discussed in great detail in Ref. smith93,  (see also Refs. matzdorf98, ; kevan92, , and huefner95, ). For normal emission, the measured linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ is approximately given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}=\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_h+\frac{v_h}{v_e}\mathrm{\Gamma }_e\right)\left(\left|1\frac{v_h}{v_e}\right|\right)^1,$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h=\mathrm{}/\tau _h,\mathrm{\Gamma }_e=\mathrm{}/\tau _e`$ are the final-state hole and electron state inverse lifetimes, and $`v_h,v_e`$ are the corresponding group velocities $`v=\mathrm{}^1E/k`$ taken normal to the surface. Although the copper $`d`$-bands show a weak dispersion, i.e. $`v_ev_h`$ (see e.g. Refs. matzdorf98,  and courths84, ), the measured linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ is generally dominated by the contribution of the photoelectron, because $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e`$ exceeds $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ by more than an order of magnitude. In order to obtain $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$, we have to tune the photon energy to direct transitions with $`v_h=0`$, i.e. to symmetry points of the band structure along the surface normal. In the experiments with Cu(110) we observed transitions around the X-point. At the upper $`d`$-band edge the bands are split under the combined action of crystal-field and spin-orbit coupling: Three subbands labeled X$`_{7^+}`$ ($`E_i=2.00\mathrm{eV}`$), X$`_{6^+}`$ ($`2.15\mathrm{eV}`$), and X$`_{7^+}`$ ($`2.34\mathrm{eV}`$) in relativistic double-group symmetry notation are observedhuefner95 ; courths84 , see inset in Fig. 1. Also at X$`_{7^+}`$ ($`E_i=4.80\mathrm{eV}`$) a $`d`$-hole may be created. Direct transitions at the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-point may be excited using photons of $`\mathrm{}\omega =40.8\mathrm{eV}`$ (HeII radiation) at the Cu(100) surfacecourths84 . Thus this experiment probes states at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{8^+}`$ ($`E_i=3.59\mathrm{eV}`$), $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{7^+}`$ ($`3.40\mathrm{eV}`$) , and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{8^+}`$ ($`2.82\mathrm{eV}`$) . In summary, we have access to several hole states within the $`d`$-bands. A determination of their lifetimes by linewidth analysis should be sufficient to recognize trends in $`\tau _h(E_i)`$.

We collected normal emission spectra from Cu(110) using photon energies between $`14`$ and $`21\mathrm{eV}`$, both at room temperature and $`T=25\mathrm{K}`$. A typical spectrum taken at $`\mathrm{}\omega =15.9\mathrm{eV}`$ and $`T=300\mathrm{K}`$ is reproduced in Fig. 1(a).

Four peaks, which correspond to transistions from $`𝐤`$-points near X$`_{7^+}`$, X$`_{6^+}`$, X$`_{7^+}`$, and X$`_{7^+}`$, are clearly resolved. Assuming a Shirley-type backgroundshirley72  to account for the underlying continuous emission and Lorentzian line shapes, all spectra were decomposed in order to obtain the initial state energy $`E_i`$, intensity, and linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ in their dependence on $`\mathrm{}\omega `$. This kind of analysis, as shown in Fig. 1(b), works quite well. But especially peak 1 shows an asymmetric lineshape with a broader tail to higher binding energies, which cannot be reproduced by our fit. A detailed line shape analysis, based on a suitable parameterization of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e`$, reveals that this discrepancy is related to the decreasing inverse lifetime $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ at the upper d-band edge and the uncertainty of $`k_{}`$ along the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-direction ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$KX), see further below.

Fig. 2 shows results for transitions out of the third band below $`E_i=2.34\mathrm{eV}`$. The observed peak shift with $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ is not symmetric around $`\mathrm{}\omega =16.2\mathrm{eV}`$, as might be expected from the symmetry along the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-direction in the Brillouin zone. We attribute this to the presence of the well-known band gap above the Fermi leveldietz79 ; courths84 : Photoelectrons excited with $`\mathrm{}\omega =1721\mathrm{eV}`$ cannot couple to the corresponding bulk states. In consequence, only “surface emission”huefner95 ; courths84  into evanescent final states contributes to the photoemission intensity, which drops significantly within this photon-energy region. As is evident from Fig. 2(b), the minimum linewidth is obtained at $`E_i=2.34\mathrm{eV}`$ around $`\mathrm{}\omega =16.2\mathrm{eV}`$, i.e. just at the X$`_{7^+}`$-point. This is consistent with eq. (1). The linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ gets smaller by approaching the X-point with $`v_h=0`$. Similar data were obtained for the other peaks, of course with the maxima and minima located at different photon energies.

In case of peak 1, the experimental resolution exceeds the lifetime-width, and our data analysis gets uncertain. Therefore we have taken additional data in our home laboratory using the HeI radiation at $`\mathrm{}\omega =21.2\mathrm{eV}`$, which allowed to determine the half-width at half-maximum (HWHM) of peak 1 at its lower binding energy side with higher precision. A typical spectrum recorded at $`T=110\mathrm{K}`$ is reproduced in Fig. 3. Although the excitation is not exactly related to the X-point, the aforementioned band gap “pins” the transition right next to the symmetry pointhuefner95 ; courths84 . We regard the linewidth of peak 1 obtained with $`\mathrm{}\omega =21.2\mathrm{eV}`$ as upper limit for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ with only a small contribution due to the non-vanishing band dispersion.

All linewidths were extrapolated to $`T=0\mathrm{K}`$ to correct for phonon-induced linewidth contributions $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{hph}(T)`$. Using the well-known formulamcdougall95

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{hph}(T)=2\pi \mathrm{}\lambda _0^{\omega _D}𝑑\omega ^{}(\omega ^{}/\omega _D)^2\left(1f(\omega \omega ^{})+2n(\omega ^{})+f(\omega +\omega ^{})\right),$$
(2)
where $`f(\omega )`$ is the Fermi-distribution, $`n(\omega )`$ the Bose-distribution and $`\mathrm{}\omega _D`$ the maximum phonon energy in the Debye approximation, we extracted the mass-enhancement parameter $`\lambda `$ for several photo-holes within the $`d`$-bands. The inset in Fig. 3 shows the temperature dependent phonon contribution to the linewidth of peak 1 at $`E_i=2.00\mathrm{eV}`$. In this case we derive $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{hph}(300\mathrm{K})=8\mathrm{meV}`$ using eq. (2) with the experimentally determined value of $`\lambda =0.08`$. Thus the extrapolation to $`T=0\mathrm{K}`$ gives a phonon-corrected linewidth of $`29\mathrm{meV}`$. Typical spectra of Cu(100) with $`\mathrm{}\omega =40.8\mathrm{eV}`$ taken at three different temperatures are shown in Fig. 4. Being somewhat better resolved than those presented earliermatzdorf94 , they demonstrate the dramatic influence of the temperature-dependent broadening due to hole-phonon coupling at the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-point. In practice we never observed any deviation from the linear high temperature limitmcdougall95 ; matzdorf96  $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{hph}=2\pi \lambda k_BT`$, but there is a significant decrease of $`\lambda (E_i)`$ on approaching the upper $`d`$-band edge. We attribute this to the reduced phase space for hole-phonon scattering in this energy range: Since there are no $`d`$-states available above $`E_i=2.00\mathrm{eV}`$, the phonon assisted $`d`$-hole decay is strongly suppressed.

Although we use excellent quality surfaces as verified by the narrow emission lines from the surface states, broadening from defect scattering has to be consideredtheilmann97 ; kevan83 ; tersoff83 . Recently we investigated the magnitude $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{def}`$ of such contributions to the photoemission linewidths of various surface states on coppertheilmann97 . Our main message was that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{def}`$ scales inversely proportional to the effective band mass. Using the appropriate values around the X-point as taken from the band structureeckardt84 , we can safely estimate that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{def}<10\mathrm{meV}`$ for peaks $`27`$. Moreover, we determined the photoemission linewidth of peak 1 for differently annealed (and differently ordered) surfaces after argon ion bombardment at low temperatures. Simultaneously the width $`w`$ of LEED spot-profiles is measured with high resolution. A linear correlation of both linewidths is observed. In the present case the extrapolation to a “defect-free” sample ($`w0`$) results in a contribution of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{def}=8\mathrm{meV}`$. Since the different contributions to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{exp}`$ add linearly mcdougall95 , we finally get $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h=(21\pm 5)\mathrm{meV}`$. Our linewidth data are compiled in table 1. Each value is obtained after extrapolation to $`T=0\mathrm{K}`$ and treating the defect scattering as described above.

As mentioned already peak 1 can not be described by a Lorentzian line shape. The steep increase at the low binding energy side and its clearly visible asymmetry on the opposite wing resembles the Doniach-Sunjic lineshapedoniach70  which, as is well known for core-level excitation, has a high binding energy tail due to electron-hole pair excitations around $`E_F`$. At the X-point the $`d`$-band is flat and one might expect some response of the Fermi sea to the rather well-localized photo-hole. Fig. 5 shows three different lineshape calculations, which are based on the Doniach-Sunjic formulawertheim78 ; doniach70 . The shape of peak 1 cannot be described satisfactorily, if we use an asymmetry parameter $`\alpha =0.05`$ with is typically observed in XPS spectra from copper or silverwertheim78 , see the solid line in Fig. 5(a). Although the fit may be improved with $`\alpha 0.1`$, see Fig. 5(b) and Fig. 5(c), one can argue whether these values describe the response function of the $`d`$-hole. Actually we presume the degree of delocalization to be stronger for the $`3d`$-bands than for core holes and rule out an exclusive interpretation of the asymmetry due to the Doniach-Sunjic excitation.

Instead we use line-shape modeling going beyond Lorentzians. First, Lorentzians result provided both initial and final state bands disperse linearly across the direct emission photoelectron peaksmith93 . This is clearly violated at the X-point. Second, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ ist regarded as constant on the energy scale of the linewidth. The data collected in table 1 clearly indicate a rapid variation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ around the upper edge of the $`d`$-band. Therefore we have performed a numerical line shape calculation following the ideas outlined in detail in subsection 3.2 to 3.4 of Ref. matzdorf98, . The initial state bands are taken from the calculation of Ref. eckardt84, . The final state is modeled by a free-electron-like band according to $`E_f(k_{})=V_0+\mathrm{}^2k_{}^2/2m`$ where $`m`$ is the free electron rest mass and $`V_0`$ is chosen according to the experimentally observed X-point.

The line shape is then given for each contributing transition by the convolution (eq. (20) of Ref. matzdorf98, )

$$I(E_i)𝑑k_{}_h(E_fE_i\mathrm{}\omega ,\sigma _h)_e(k_{}^0k_{}G_{},\sigma _e).$$
(3)
In eq. (3) $`_h`$ and $`_e`$ are Lorentzian distributions, whereas $`\sigma _h`$ and $`\sigma _e`$ represent the corresponding half-widths at half-maximum. They are treated as parameters in order to reproduce the experimental line shape. After performing the integration given by equ. (3) the resulting $`I(E_i)`$ is additionally convoluted with a Gaussian to account for the experimental energy resolution before comparison with the measured line shape. To model $`\sigma _h`$ we have chosen

$$\sigma _h(E_i)=64\left(|E_i|1.95\right)^{1/2}+10\text{[meV]}$$
(4)
for the energy range $`E_i<1.95`$eV. Above the upper $`d`$-band edge, i.e. $`E_i>1.95`$eV, we simply assume $`\sigma _h=10`$meV. Our choice of 2$`\sigma _h=\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ assumes that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ does not change significantly with $`k_{}`$ in the vicinity of the X-point. This parameterization, however, implies a drastic decrease of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ on approaching the $`d`$-band edge. For the corresponding final states we use

$$\sigma _e(E_f)=\frac{dk_{}}{dE_f}\mathrm{\Gamma }_e,$$
(5)
where $`E_f`$ is the free-electron-like parabola mentioned above. The linear relation $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e=a(E_fE_F)`$ used in our calculation is an empirical average over many photoemission results, see Ref. goldmann91,  for experimental data and Ref. echenique00,  for some theoretical background. A typical result of the numerically modeled peak shapes together with the parameterization of eq. (4) is reproduced in Fig. 6. Obviously the agreement is very much improved compared to simple Lorentzians and we believe the resulting data for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h(E_i)`$ around the X-point to be reliable. At the upper $`d`$-band edge we deduce $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h=(20\pm 5)\mathrm{meV}`$.

On the basis of the experimental linewidth as given in table 1 we calculate the corresponding hole lifetimes $`\tau _h=\mathrm{}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$, which are reproduced in Fig. 7. The lifetime is very long at the top of the $`d`$-band ($`\tau _h=31\mathrm{fs}`$), then decreases rapidly with increasing distance from $`E_F`$ and seems to saturate finally. This behaviour is clearly not consistent with an energy dependence $`\tau _h(EE_F)^2`$. In earlier publicationsmatzdorf94 ; matzdorf99  we had collected experimental data taken from spectra measured with laboratory light sources, i.e. without the possibility to tune the photon energy exactly to the symmetry points. These results still seemed to follow the $`(EE_F)^2`$-dependence. The corresponding claim e.g. in Ref. matzdorf99,  is obviously ruled out by the new data. In fact it was Petek and his grouppetek99  who first found the surprisingly long hole lifetime of $`\tau _h24\mathrm{fs}`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h=28\mathrm{meV}`$) at the upper $`d`$-band edge, and they also argued that Fermi-liquid-like energy dependence should not hold for the noble metal $`d`$-holes.

## III Theoretical model and discussion

For many years the theoretical framework of the e-e inelastic lifetimes and mean free paths of excited electrons in metals had been based on the free-electron gas (FEG) model of the solid. In this simple model and for energies very near the Fermi level $`(|EE_F|E_F)`$, the inelastic lifetime is found to be, in the high-density limit ($`r_s0`$)rs , $`\tau (E)=263r_s^{5/2}(EE_F)^2\mathrm{fs}`$, where $`E`$ and $`E_F`$ are expressed in $`\mathrm{eV}`$quinn58 . Deviations from this simple formula, which have been shown to be mainly due to band-structure effectscampillo00 ; schoene00 , were clearly observedpawlik97 ; knoesel98 ; petek00 . First-principles caculations of the hole dynamics in the noble metals copper and gold have been reported very recentlycampillopress , too. Here we focus on the calculation of $`d`$-hole lifetimes in copper and a comparison with the experiment.

The basic quantity in the investigation of quasiparticle dynamics is the probability per unit time for the probe quasiparticle (electron or hole) to be scattered from a given initial state $`\varphi _{n,𝐤}(𝐫)`$ of energy $`E_{n,𝐤}`$. In the framework of many-body theory, this probability is identified with the inverse quasiparticle lifetime (we use atomic units, i.e., $`e^2=\mathrm{}=m_e=1`$),

$$\tau ^1=2𝑑𝐫𝑑𝐫^{}\varphi _{n,𝐤}^{}(𝐫)\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐫,𝐫^{};E_{n,𝐤})\varphi _{n,𝐤}(𝐫^{}),$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐫,𝐫^{};E_{n,𝐤})`$ is the so-called self-energy of the quasiparticle. In the GW approximation, one keeps only the first-order term in a series expansion of the self-energy in terms of the screened interaction. For details on further approximations we refer to Ref. echenique00, .

Our full band-structure calculations of hole lifetimes in copper, as obtained from eq. (6) by averaging over all wave vectors and bands with the same energy, are shown in Fig. 7 (solid circles), together with the FEG calculations with $`r_s=2.67`$. There is a qualitatively good agreement of our theoretical calculations and the experimental data, which are both well above the FEG prediction. Band-structure effects, which significantly enhance the lifetimes predicted within a FEG model of the solid, are found to be mainly due to a major contribution from occupied $`d`$-states participating in the screening of e-e interactions, and also to the small overlap of the initial and final $`d`$-hole and $`sp`$-states below the Fermi levelnote0 .

Density-functional theorygross96  (DFT) predicts an upper $`d`$-band edge that is located $`1.5\mathrm{eV}`$ below the Fermi level, i.e. $`0.5\mathrm{eV}`$ higher than observed by photoemission experimentshuefner95 ; strocov98 . Since the wave functions and energies entering eq. (6) have been obtained by DFT, the calculation yields enhanced lifetimes at $`EE_F=1.5\mathrm{eV}`$note1 , whereas the measured lifetimes increase near the actual upper $`d`$-band edge at $`2.0\mathrm{eV}`$ below $`E_F`$, see Fig. 7. As the energy $`|EE_F|`$ increases the larger phase space for the hole decay yields shorter lifetimes, but the small overlap of $`d`$\- and $`sp`$-states still prevents the establishment of a free-electron-like behaviour $`\tau (EE_F)^2`$. While our calculated lifetimes below $`3\mathrm{eV}`$ tend to approach those predicted by a FEG model of the solid, the experimental data show a distinct asymptotic behaviour at the large binding energies $`|EE_F|`$. This discrepancy between theory and experiment may be, again, due to the failure of the DFT to reproduce the actual band structure of copper. Indeed, experiments and an accurate mapping of the occupied band structurestrocov98  have shown that not only the actual upper $`d`$-band edge is located $`0.5\mathrm{eV}`$ lower than predicted by DFT, but also the $`d`$-band width is $`2.7`$ ($`1.0`$) eV at the X- ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-) point, i.e. $`0.3`$ ($`0.13`$) eV narrower than in the case of the DFT band structure. This narrowing of the $`d`$-band points to a stronger decoupling between $`d`$\- and $`sp`$-states, as well as a localization and hybridization of the states below the Fermi level. Thus the hole lifetimes at the upper $`d`$-band edge are expected to be even longer than predicted by our calculations. Hence, the departure of the quasiparticle wave-functions from their DFT counterparts is expected to prevent the establishment of a free-electron-like behavior, thereby providing a qualitative explanation for the long lifetimes measured below $`3\mathrm{eV}`$ (see Fig. 7).

Comparing the experimental and theoretical data we have to keep in mind that both data sets are not completely compatible: First, theory integrates over the full Brillouin zone, whereas the experimental data refer to selected $`k`$-space points at X and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Second, due to the shifted $`d`$-band edge in the DFT calculation the available phase space for Auger recombination is underestimated, yielding calculated lifetimes which are too long. Third, $`sp`$-like bands contribute to the calculated data, in particular above the the $`d`$-band threshold. Finally, the band structure calculation is performed non-relativistically, with the symmetry admixtures of different orbital character neglected and splittings due to the spin-orbit coupling at X and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ omitted. Regarding these deficiencies the basic trends are nevertheless well reproduced. There is a threshold like onset of large $`d`$-hole lifetimes at the upper $`d`$-band edge, both in experiment and theory.

## IV Summary and conclusions

We have presented high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission experiments and many-body quasiparticle GW calculations of e-e inelastic lifetimes of $`d`$-holes in copper. Both our theoretical calculations and the experimental measurements have been found to be well above the FEG predictions, showing the important role that band-structure effects play in the hole-decay mechanism. The $`(EE_F)^2`$-dependence of the hole lifetimes is based on the free-electron picture. Flat bands, as occuring near the symmetry points of noble metals, can lead to rather different energy dependence. The experimentally observed decrease of the $`d`$-hole lifetimes by approximately one order of magnitude within the $`d`$-bands is attributed to the large phase space and the effective $`d`$-$`d`$ scattering. Since the $`d`$-holes are much more confined to the ionic core, the $`d`$-$`d`$ scattering cross section should be much larger than the $`d`$-$`sp`$ cross section.

Although there is qualitative good agreement of theory and experiment, there still exist significant discrepancies. On the one hand, both theory and experiment exhibit the longest lifetimes at the top of the $`d`$-bands, due to the small overlap of $`d`$\- and $`sp`$-states below the Fermi level. Differences in the position of the maximum lifetime are attributed to the failure of the DFT band-structure calculation. On the other hand the distinct behaviour of the lifetimes at large energies $`|EE_F|`$ suggest that the narrowing of the $`d`$-band width may play an important role, thereby showing the need to go beyond DFT in the description of the band structure of copper.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge support by the University of the Basque Country, the Basque Hezkuntza, Unibertsitate eta Ikerketa Saila, the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, and the European Union Research Training Network program NANOPHASE. P.M.E. gratefully acknowledges support from the Max Planck Research Award funds. Our experimental work is continuously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The experiments using synchrotron radiation are financed by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF). We are also indebted to the referees of the first draft of the manuscript, whose extensive comments helped to improve this paper considerably.


text:
# On the formation of oxygen–neon white dwarfs in close binary systems

## 1 Introduction

Intermediate mass close binaries are defined as those systems in which the primary component develops a degenerate carbon–oxygen core, after burning central helium in non–degenerate conditions. From the orbital parameters in these systems, we see that periods are small enough that the possibility of mass transfer due to Roche Lobe overflow is enabled. The evolution of low– to intermediate–mass stars belonging to close binary systems has been widely studied so far and, even though many questions still remain unsolved, important contributions have already been made on this subject. One of these questions concerns the evolution of heavy–weight intermediate mass stars (that is, primary stars with masses between $`8`$ and 11 $`M_{}`$) belonging to close binary systems. For the case of isolated stars, this range of stellar masses corresponds to stars for which, after exhaustion of central helium, carbon is ignited under conditions of partial degeneracy. Ultimately, these stars become Super–AGB stars with ONe cores (Ritossa, García–Berro & Iben 1996). For the case of stars within this mass range belonging to binary systems, very few comments can be made, either because most of the calculations do not follow the evolution through the carbon burning phase or, simply, because the existing calculations focus mostly on a lower segment of masses.

For instance, Whyte & Eggleton (1980) studied the evolution of stars of up to 3 $`M_{}`$ belonging to semidetached systems. These authors later extended their work to more general scenarios in which accretion and mass transfer between low mass contact binaries were included (Whyte & Eggleton 1985). Van der Linden (1987) also performed conservative Case B evolutionary calculations for several masses of the primary, ranging from 3 $`M_{}`$ to 12 $`M_{}`$, but the evolution through the carbon burning phase was not followed. Besides the work they have performed in the field of massive binaries, de Loore & Vanbeveren (1992, 1994, and references therein) have also focused on the evolution of intermediate mass close binary systems (de Loore & Vanbeveren 1995). However, they were only able to follow the evolution of the primary star until the exhaustion of the helium in the core. Their calculations included both non–conservative (de Loore & de Greve 1992) and conservative mass transfer (de Loore & Vanbeveren 1995). Very recently, Nelson & Eggleton (2001) have performed a very comprehensive work on intermediate mass close binary systems, exploring 5 500 evolutionary tracks of mostly Case A conservative mass transfer systems. The upper mass limit in this case was $`50`$ $`M_{}`$ but, again, in most of the cases the evolution during the carbon burning phase was not followed or it was aborted earlier (when the carbon luminosity exceeded 1 $`L_{}`$). In another recent work Han, Tout & Eggleton (2000) determined the final mass relation for binary systems with the mass of the components ranging between 3 and 8 $`M_{}`$, starting mass loss at different times of the Hertzsprung–Russell gap. However, in these studies the assumption of conservative mass transfer was adopted and justified by the conditions of the case they consider which, in spite of corresponding to an important portion of the real cases, cannot account for all of them.

Iben (1985, 1991) has extensively reviewed the physical mechanisms relevant to binary systems and has thoroughly discussed the evolution of intermediate mass close binary systems, offering an excellent overview of their evolution until very late stages, proposing several different scenarios and providing their probabilities of occurrence. Also, Iben & Tutukov (1984) have proposed different evolutionary scenarios for heavy–weight intermediate mass close binary systems as progenitors of SNe Ia. In spite of the fact that this mass interval contains a good fraction of the stars which are massive enough to ignite carbon in a non–explosive way, the evolution of these systems has been much neglected until very recently. The pioneering works of Miyaji et al. (1980) and Woosley, Weaver & Taam (1980) lead to the conclusion that the stars of this mass interval belonging to close binary systems would lose most of their mass and, moreover, would develop electron–degenerate ONe cores after the carbon burning phase. In a second phase, due to accretion from the secondary, the central density would increase until the threshold for electron capture on 24Mg and 24Na would be reached first, and on 20Ne and 20F later. The process of electron capture on these nuclei would finally trigger the explosive ignition of neon and oxygen at very high densities ($`\rho _\mathrm{c}2\times 10^{10}`$ g cm-3). At these densities, fast electron captures on the incinerated material would bring the Chandrasekhar mass below the actual mass of the ONe core and induce gravitational collapse to neutron star dimensions. Although there is a general agreement that electron–capture induced collapse could be successful, a major drawback of this scenario is that no detailed pre–collapse models existed in the literature. For instance, in most of the calculations, the evolution during the mass loss phase was not followed in full detail (Nomoto 1984) or the evolution during the carbon burning phase was oversimplified by introducing the so–called steady burning approximation (Saio & Nomoto 1998). Therefore, the depicted evolutionary scenario could be substantially modified due to the presence of these approximations.

Very recently, the evolution leading to the formation of white dwarfs with ONe cores in close binary systems is being reinvestigated. For instance, Domínguez, Tornambé & Isern (1994) have studied the formation of an ONe white dwarf through mass transfer in a close binary system. On the other hand, in a series of recent papers (García–Berro & Iben 1994; Ritossa, García–Berro & Iben 1996; García–Berro, Ritossa & Iben 1997; Iben, Ritossa & García–Berro 1997; Ritossa, García–Berro & Iben 1999) the evolution of isolated heavy–weight intermediate mass stars has also been carefully followed from the main sequence phase up to exhaustion of carbon in the core. Perhaps one of the most important conclusions of these papers is that isolated white dwarfs with masses $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}1.0M_{}`$ would most likely have an ONe core surrounded by a mantle of carbon–oxygen rich material. This bears important consequences for the above–mentioned accretion–induced collapse scenario because all the existing calculations assume that the composition of the He–exhausted core is carbon–free. Nevertheless, these authors studied only the mass–conservative evolutionary tracks for the relevant range of stellar masses, whereas in a close binary system the composition of the final remnant could be dramatically affected by the previous evolutionary phase if the star is interacting with a companion. In any case, progress in the right direction has been made, but further exploration is still worthwhile.

In this paper we follow the evolution of a 10 $`M_{}`$ model star of solar metallicity belonging to a close binary system, from its main sequence phase until an oxygen–neon core develops. In order to keep consistency with our previous results, for the calculations reported in this paper we have used the same evolutionary code described in Ritossa, García–Berro & Iben (1996). In particular we have not considered overshooting, as was done there. This procedure might lead to somewhat smaller cores than in the case in which overshooting is considered, but we expect the differences to be small. Different mass loss episodes are caused by the presence of a close companion and are followed in detail. Specifically, the model loses most of its hydrogen–rich envelope in a case B Roche–lobe overflow episode. It is worth mentioning at this point that we have taken special care in treating the mass zoning and the time steps during the mass loss episodes and the carbon burning phase (about 2 000 lagrangian mesh points are used during the most problematic phases). Moreover, the distribution of mesh points is regularly updated at each time step. Our algorithm puts mesh points where they are most needed (that is, where the gradients of the physical variables are strong) and eliminates them where they are not necessary. Once this is done, the values of the physical variables are interpolated at the new mesh points in order to properly compute the temporal derivatives. If necessary the mesh can be updated at each iteration.

As is usually done, throughout this work we will refer to the star that is initially more massive as the primary component whereas the secondary component will be its companion. We have assumed that the initial orbital parameters and the mass of the secondary component allow the whole evolution to proceed without reversal mass transfer and without disruption or merger events. This poses some constraints on the mass of the secondary which will be discussed later.

The plan of the paper is the following. In the second section of this paper we explain our choice of the initial orbital parameters and the assumed scenario. In the third section we present a description of the overall evolution of our model star until carbon ignition sets in, and we compare it with the evolution of an isolated star of the same mass. This section is also devoted to the study of the resulting mass loss episodes. In the fourth section we briefly describe the evolution during the carbon burning phase and we discuss the final characteristics of the remnant. Finally our major findings and conclusions are described in section §5.

## 2 The scenario

In this section we set up our evolutionary scenario and we describe our choices for the initial orbital parameters. The reader should keep in mind that our main goal is to provide a successful scenario to test the formation of massive ONe white dwarfs in close binary systems that could ultimately lead either to a cataclysmic variable or to collapse to neutron star dimensions through the accretion–induced collapse alternative. Therefore our choice of the initial parameters of the binary system is effectively influenced by the desired final outcome. A possible observational counterpart of the proposed scenario could be the binary system IK Peg (HR 8210, HD 204188), which has an orbital period of 21.7 days, and it is composed of a massive white dwarf of mass $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}1.15M_{}`$ and a main sequence star of $`1.4M_{}`$ (Smalley et al., 1996).

Our starting point is a primordial system composed of a 10 $`M_{}`$ star and its $`5M_{}`$ companion, which we will refer to as the primary and secondary components respectively (see Fig. 1). The system undergoes a case B mass transfer, this being the most likely possibility, and so the primary starts losing mass after the onset of hydrogen burning in a shell. Unlike early case–B mass loss episodes, late case–B mass transfer has been little studied up to now. The reasons for this are multiple but perhaps the most important one is the additional computational difficulties that arise when studying such a phase. However, it has been recently pointed out (Tauris & Dewi, 2001) that the actual definition of the resulting core of the primary after the mass loss episode could influence the final orbital parameters. We consider it interesting, therefore, to study a late case–B mass loss episode. This determines the range of values for the initial Roche lobe radius of the primary, that we actually choose by considering the evolutionary track for the single $`10M_{}`$ model star followed by García–Berro et al. (1994), and we keep it constant at $`210R_{}`$ during the whole process (see the discussion below). Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that we have conducted a series of numerical experiments in which the Roche lobe radius has been changed to values as small as $`120R_{}`$ and we have not found significant differences. Given the initial mass relation and the Roche lobe of the primary, we can obtain the orbital separation between both components by appliying the equation (Eggleton, 1983):

$$\frac{R_\mathrm{L}}{A}=\frac{0.46q^{2/3}}{0.6q^{2/3}+\mathrm{ln}(1+q^{1/3})},$$
(1)
where $`R_\mathrm{L}`$ denotes the effective radius of the Roche lobe of the primary, $`A`$ indicates the orbital separation and $`q`$ is the mass ratio ($`M_1/M_2`$) between the components. The initial orbital separation turns out to be $`A150350R_{}`$ and the orbital period is $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}0.11.0`$ yr, depending on the initial mass of the companion (between 1 and 5 $`M_{}`$), which are reasonable values.

As it will be shown in detail in the next section, a number of uncertainties are involved in the first mass loss episode. These uncertainties are basically caused by the formation of a common envelope. This common envelope is formed when the primary star attains the highest values for its mass loss rates, and most probably removes a large amount of mass and angular momentum from the system. Consequently, the evolution of the orbital parameters cannot be accurately followed, and this can only be done in an approximate way. In order to determine the mass lost by the primary, we assume that all the matter overflowing the Roche lobe is lost by the star, and we simply stop the process when its radius dramatically decreases below that of the Roche lobe (see §3.1).

The second mass loss episode starts when the surface radius of the primary again exceeds that of its Roche lobe. In this case, this is due to the onset of helium burning in the shell. This process is most likely conservative both in mass and in angular momentum and, again, stops when the radius of the primary decreases below the value of the Roche lobe. After this temporary decrease in radius, carbon ignition continues and the primary starts the ascent along the Super–AGB but does not fill again its Roche lobe. Once carbon is exhausted in the innermost regions, it is a stellar wind rather than Roche lobe overflow that induces mass loss and, thus, we use the parametrization of Nieuwenheuzen and de Jager (1990) in order to account for the mass loss rates. As happened during the first mass loss episode, there are several uncertainties involved in this process, which can have consequences on the final fate of the system. In fact, depending on the choice of the efficiency of the winds, the resulting orbital parameters can vary significantly (Umeda et al. 1999). If the system survives the Super–AGB phase, we are left with an ONe white dwarf, as a result of the evolution of the primary, and a main sequence star that, at some time, will fill its Roche lobe and give rise to reversal mass transfer.

Even though we do not mean to get deep into the study of the probability of occurrence of the different final outcomes, we will briefly outline the different possibilities for the final stages of the life of the binary in terms of the mass transfer rates during the reversal mass transfer. Depending on this mass transfer, the final outcome can be either a cataclysmic variable if it is lower than a critical rate, a supernova explosion if it is larger or an ONe white dwarf if it is much larger. A more detailed study can be found in §5.

## 3 Evolution until the beginning of the carbon burning phase and main mass loss episodes

The presence of a close companion has several consequences for the evolution of our 10 $`M_{}`$ model star. In particular, there are two Roche–lobe overflow mass loss episodes. The first one occurs just after the main sequence phase when our model star reaches red giant dimensions, and the second one happens shortly after the exhaustion of central helium.

Figure 2 shows the evolution of our model in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Times to evolve to each labeled point along the evolutionary track are given in the second column of Table 1, where we also provide the most important characteristics of these particular models for the hydrogen and helium burning phases. Also shown in the last columns of table 1 are the mass of the primary and secondary stars ($`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$), and the expected orbital period $`(P_{\mathrm{orb}})`$. The solid lines represent the evolutionary phases during which no mass loss occurs, whereas the dotted lines correspond to the evolutionary phases where mass loss occurs: from B to C, for the first mass loss episode, and from shortly after K to L, for most of the second Roche–lobe overflow. Note, however, that the final part of the second Roche–lobe overflow occurs when carbon has already been ignited in the core (see §3.4 and §4) and, thus, it is not shown in figure 2. As expected, the effects of the mass loss episodes considerably modify the evolutionary track when compared with the evolution of an isolated star of the same initial mass (García–Berro & Iben 1994). For instance, although the descent along the red giant branch takes place at a slightly higher temperature than in the case of an isolated star (4 400 K instead of 4 300 K), it is followed by a sudden shift to bluer regions of the diagram due to the adiabatic expansion and cooling that accompanies the first mass loss episode (see below). The second major different feature is that the developement of the blue loop during the core helium burning phase takes place at lower luminosities than in the case of the isolated model star ($`6.9\times 10^3L_{}`$ instead of $`7.9\times 10^3L_{}`$).

In Figure 3 we show the temporal evolution of the radius of the star (top panel) and of the convective regions associated with nuclear burning (bottom panel), from the zero age main sequence up to the off–center ignition of carbon in the helium–exhausted core. The inserts show with higher resolution the evolution of the convective regions and of the radius during the two mass–loss episodes. The initial central convective zone of Fig. 3 is due to the high fluxes engendered by the CN–cycle reactions and persists until hydrogen vanishes at the center. An off–center convective region forms later, very much in the same way as in the case of a single star. This convective region is due to the release of gravitational potential energy during the overall contraction phase that follows the exhaustion of central hydrogen and the establishement of the hydrogen–burning shell that occurs from points C to D in Fig. 2. The thick solid line in the lower panel corresponds to the total mass of the primary which, as it can be seen, decreases dramatically at the begining of the first dredge–up–process, which occurs simultaneously with the first Roche–lobe overflow. Since this mass loss episode occurs in the presence of a deep convective envelope, the associated time scales are short. On the contrary, we will see that the second mass–loss episode is much more stable since it is not associated with a dredge–up episode. This behaviour makes the two mass–loss episodes completely different and has important consequences. For instance, we expect to find a different pattern of surface composition after the first mass–loss episode and dredge–up, when compared to the evolution of a single star. The surface composition of both model stars and that of the isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ star just after the end of the dredge–up episode can be found in Table 2. As we shall show below, the comparison with the 9 $`M_{}`$ star is relevant for this study since some of the results obtained in the calculations reported here are much closer to the isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ model than to those of the 10 $`M_{}`$ single star. As can be seen, the helium and nitrogen contents are significantly higher in the case of a model star belonging to a close binary system.

### 3.1 The first mass loss episode

Our model undergoes a Case B mass loss process that starts shortly after hydrogen combustion in a shell has been established, and the surface radius reaches the Roche Lobe radius which, as previously mentioned, we have adopted to be 210 $`R_{}`$. In computing this mass–loss episode we have (somewhat arbitrarily) assumed that the primary keeps a constant radius which is coincidential with the Roche–lobe radius and that all the overflowing matter will be lost by the primary. Although this is a classical prescription there are, of course, other alternatives (Nelson & Eggleton 2000). It is nevertheless worth noticing that when using the last approximation with secondary masses of around $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}M_{}`$, the Roche lobe radius changes by $`10\%`$ and, consequently, we do not expect this to have a large impact on our results. We thus defer such study to a forthcoming publication.

In the first insert in the top and bottom panels of Fig. 3 the first mass–loss episode is shown. Also, in Figure 4 we show the evolution of several interesting quantities like the hydrogen and helium nuclear luminosities. This mass–loss episode occurs in two distinct phases. The first and most violent phase occurs as the convective envelope is still advancing to the interior of the star and when helium has already been ignited at the center, leading to the formation of a central convective region, which reaches its equilibrium value when $`\mathrm{log}(L_{\mathrm{He}}/L_{})3.3`$. This phase is clearly marked by the two arrows in the top insert of Fig. 3 and by the thin vertical lines of Fig. 4. During this first phase, the bulk of the hydrogen–rich envelope is lost ($`7.6M_{}`$), leaving a remnant of 2.4 $`M_{}`$ of which $`0.5M_{}`$ corresponds to the remaining H–rich convective envelope. The duration of this phase is $`3.0\times 10^4`$ yr.

Since the dependence of the variation of the total radius of the star on the mass is $`\mathrm{\Delta }RRM^{1/3}`$ (de Loore & Doom 1992), the mass–loss process experiences a positive feedback. Therefore, during the very first part of this mass–loss episode the feedback of the process allows very high values for the mass loss rates, that can reach values as high as $`\dot{M_1}10^3M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. At these very high mass–loss rates the star is no longer able to keep a constant radius and at the end of this phase the radius of the primary falls below the value of the Roche–lobe, and thus the mass transfer onto the secondary temporarily stops. As the evolution continues, the primary again fills its Roche–lobe radius, leading to a subsequent phase of mass–loss. During this second phase only $`0.05M_{}`$ are lost by the primary. Thus, a small portion of the H–rich envelope remains even at the end of the first mass–loss episode. The time scale for this second phase is significantly longer ($`1.6\times 10^5`$ yr), leading to much more modest mass–loss rates: $`\dot{M_1}10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$.

The existence of a deep convective envelope surrounding the H–exhausted core of the primary and, consequently, the high values of the resulting mass–loss rates very much enhance the possibility that the system is embedded in a common envelope. No definite and accurate study of this kind of structure has been performed up to now. Thus, the part of the process in which a common envelope forms is plagued with many uncertainties, the most important one perhaps being the influence of the common envelope on the orbital parameters. The expressions provided by Eggleton (1983) and Paczyński (1971) can only be taken as approximations, or even upper limits, and it is necessary to rely on estimates that have been obtained for other systems that presumably have undergone a common envelope phase, like the cataclysmic variable U Gem. These estimates yield values for the angular momentum losses that can be as high as 70–90% (Iben & Tutukov 1984). In any case, when a common envelope is present, the angular momentum losses are expected to be high due to the release as sound waves of the energy generated by frictional drag in the matter of the envelope. Therefore, from an initial separation between the components of $`A_\mathrm{i}350450R_{}`$ (correspondig to $`1M_{}M_25M_{}`$ respectively) one can assume a typical 80% angular momentum loss and apply the equation

$$J_{\mathrm{orb}}^2=GA_\mathrm{i}\frac{(M_1M_2)^2}{M_1+M_2}$$
(2)
to get the final separation between components after the first Roche–lobe overflow, $`A_\mathrm{f}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}150}350R_{}`$. It should be noted, nevertheless, that this way of estimating the final orbital parameters usually leads to larger orbital separations than the values obtained when using the treatment of Webbink (1984).

We can estimate the ratio between the mass accreted by the secondary and the mass lost by the primary, $`\beta `$, by assuming stable accretion onto the secondary. Thus, $`\dot{M}_2=M_2/\tau _{\mathrm{KH}}`$, where $`\tau _{\mathrm{KH}}`$ is the Kelvin–Helmholtz timescale. Considering typical values for the luminosity and for the surface radius of a main sequence companion of mass between 1 and 5 $`M_{}`$, we get a reasonable value for the mass accretion rate of the secondary, $`\dot{M}_210^4M_{_{}}`$. Taking into account that most of the mass is lost by the primary during the first $`3.0\times 10^4`$ yr, we can easily calculate an average value for $`\beta `$ during this mass loss episode, which turns out to be $`\beta 0.1`$. Of course, it can be argued as well that another reasonable way to estimate $`\beta `$ is to adopt the Eddington limit instead of the thermal timescale, this being a firm upper limit. For the range of relevant parameters, this procedure would lead in our case to accretion rates 3 times larger, or equivalently, to $`\beta 0.3`$. Nevertheless it should be noted that the calculations of Hjellming & Taam (1991) predict a significantly lower value of $`\beta `$, of the order of 0.01. Thus, the mass accreted by the secondary will be in the range $`0.72.0M_{}`$, at most. Since the main sequence lifetime of a $`7.0M_{}`$ star is $`t9.0\times 10^{14}`$ s it is clear that reversal mass transfer will not be enabled until carbon is exhausted in the inner core of the primary (see Table 1 and §4 below), in accordance with our scenario.

We have considered the possibility that part of the matter ejected by the primary component might be accreted back by the same star. In order to obtain some hints of the possible outcomes to this problem, we have estimated the duration of the common envelope phase as in Iben & Tutukov (1984) and compared it with the thermal time scale of the primary. As the latter is much longer than the expected time for the common envelope to remain bound to the system, there are strong reasons to admit that there is not enough time for the ejected gas to cool down, lose kinetic energy and be overtaken by the gravitational potential of the primary.

It is also worth noting that the duration of the first dredge–up episode is longer in the calculations reported here than in the case of the isolated model described in García–Berro & Iben (1994). This is due to the fact that the fast release of gravitational energy during the compression phase that happens in the middle of the first mass loss episode cannot be evacuated solely by radiation and, thus, allows convection to persist. On the other hand, one should not forget that the overall evolutionary time scales are longer for decreasing masses and this effect would also have an influence on the duration of the dredge–up episode.

In order to find an explanation that, at least partially, accounts for the behaviour of the envelope during the first mass loss episode, in Fig. 5 we show the opacity profiles of several specific models for the times labeled in Fig. 4 (models a to g). The fastest expansion phase is coincidential with models a to c, in which the existence of a deep convective envelope, basically composed of hydrogen at relatively low temperature, leads to a high opacity and, thus, to an inefficient transport of the energy. Therefore, an important portion of the energy generated at the hydrogen burning shell is not driven outwards but, instead, it is transformed into internal energy in the envelope and, then, into work of expansion, thus keeping the value of the surface radius very close to the Roche lobe radius.

When the model reaches approximately 4 $`M_{}`$ (model d), a large portion of the hydrogen–rich envelope is already lost, and the inner and hotter layers are exposed. At this point, on the one hand we have less mass able to absorb the flow of energy and, on the other, the opacity is also smaller. Consequently, both phenomena allow nuclear energy to flow almost freely to the surface without being transformed into work of expansion and, at model e, when the mass of the star is about 2.45 $`M_{}`$, a fast overall (almost adiabatic) contraction of the convective envelope occurs, leading the surface radius to drop below the value of the Roche lobe and, hence, mass loss temporarily halts. Finally, for model f the opacity increases due to compression and, thus, a new phase of expansion occurs which drives the surface radius to again reach the value of the Roche lobe radius. Thus the mass loss episode is restored for a brief interval, until some more cool hydrogen–rich layers are lost. Finally the opacity definitely decreases (model g) and the mass loss episode is finished.

It is worth mentioning at this point that we get a remnant of slightly higher mass than that of the models found in the existing literature (Iben & Tutukov 1985; Domínguez, Tornambé & Isern 1994). This is due to the fact that in our model the hydrogen–rich envelope is not completely lost during the first Roche lobe overflow episode. However, since the rest of the remaining hydrogen–rich envelope is lost later during the second Roche lobe overflow episode, and since the growth of the helium core is very small during the time between the two mass loss episodes (approximately 0.08 $`M_{}`$), we expect that the influence on the CO and ONe core sizes and compositions is negligible and so the final results will not be substantially different.

### 3.2 The second mass loss episode

The second mass loss episode starts when helium burning begins in a shell and, as a consequence, its surface radius approaches again that of the Roche lobe (see Fig. 3), which now is $`80R_{}`$. The global characteristics (the mass and radius and the luminosities associated with the active burning regions) of the primary during the second mass loss episode are shown in Fig. 6. The fact that in the outer envelope, from which the matter is removed, energy is transported by radiation instead of being transported by convection, allows the process to take place in a more stable way than in the first mass loss episode. Hence, the mass loss rates are much smaller ($`\dot{M}_110^6M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$) during most of the process, except at two phases, during which the values of the mass loss rate are one order of magnitude higher. The first phase corresponds to the beginning of the mass loss episode, when the remainder of the hydrogen–rich envelope is lost, and the second phase happens nearly at the end of the process, when carbon is ignited off–center. The end of the process is determined by a steep decrease in the surface radius of the star that takes values below the Roche lobe radius.

The moderate values we get for the mass loss of the primary support the hypothesis of conservative mass transfer. Furthermore, one can compare the luminosity associated with accretion onto the secondary, which is given by $`L_{\mathrm{acc}}=\dot{M}_2(\mathrm{\Phi }_{L_1}\mathrm{\Phi }_{R_2})`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{L_1}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{R_2}`$ stand for the gravitational potential computed at the Roche lobe radius and at the radius of the secondary respectively, with the Eddington luminosity of the secondary, $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$. For a set of typical values for the secondary star, we get that $`L_{\mathrm{acc}}L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ and, thus, according to Han et al. (1999) conservative mass transfer is most likely.

### 3.3 Overall characteristics before carbon ignition

In Fig. 7 we show the evolution of the center of the primary in the $`\mathrm{log}\rho \mathrm{log}T`$ diagram from the main sequence until the onset of carbon ignition (solid line), and the evolution of the center of the isolated 10 $`M_{}`$ star (dashed line). As one can expect from the previous discussion, the differences between both cases start to show up at the onset of helium burning at the center, which, as explained above, is almost coincident with the first mass loss episode. The evolution of the primary component of the close binary system leads to higher central densities for the same value of the temperature than its isolated counterpart. In fact, mass loss has two obvious consequences. Firstly, the size of the central helium–burning convective region is smaller for the case studied here than in the evolution of isolated 10 $`M_{}`$ star. Secondly, the mass of the primary component of the binary system is much smaller than its isolated counterpart. Accordingly, the He–exhausted core of the primary is smaller ($`1.05M_{}`$) and with higher central densities than the core resulting from the evolution of a single 10 $`M_{}`$ star ($`1.15M_{}`$) and very similar to that of a 9 $`M_{}`$ isolated star ($`1.04M_{}`$).

The abundances in the central regions of the core are also affected by mass loss in a similar way, and so, the resulting composition is more similar to that of the single 9 $`M_{}`$ model. At the end of the second mass loss episode the mass of the primary is 1.88 $`M_{}`$, of which the innermost 1.05 $`M_{}`$ corresponds to a carbon–oxygen core which is surrounded by a helium–rich envelope. The chemical composition profiles at this moment are shown in Fig. 8. As can be seen in this figure the abundance profiles of our model before carbon ignition reveal a higher carbon and neon content, and lower amounts of oxygen and magnesium than those of the single 10 $`M_{}`$ model. Also the helium burning shell is narrower in the case studied here, due to the fact that the (helium) envelope over this burning shell is much smaller.

## 4 The carbon burning phase

The carbon burning phase takes place under conditions of partial degeneracy and — as one can expect from the comparison between the characteristics of the primary star in a close binary system and that of single star models of similar mass before carbon burning — many similarities are also found when analysing this phase of the evolution. Actually, the most prominent features, such as the carbon flashes and the convective regions associated with each one of these (see Fig. 9) are very similar for the case studied here and those of a 9 $`M_{}`$ model star. These flashes reach about $`10^710^8L_{}`$, and last for approximately $`10^3`$ yr. However, as it happens in the case of the evolution of isolated stars of this mass range, during most of the carbon burning phase the surface luminosity remains almost constant and close to a value of $`\mathrm{log}(L/L_{})=4.3`$.

The first flash is a prototypic one. As in the case of isolated stars within this mass range, carbon is ignited off–center due to neutrino cooling of the central regions. The mass coordinate at which carbon is ignited is $`0.42M_{}`$, very close to the value obtained for the single 9 $`M_{}`$ star ($`0.43M_{}`$). As carbon luminosity increases, most of the energy generated by nuclear reactions is used to increase the temperature of the adjacent layers, thus forcing high temperature gradients, which ultimately lead to the formation of a convective zone that allows a more efficient transport of energy. This increase in the temperature is followed by an expansion of the nearby layers and in particular, of the helium burning shell, which cools down and, hence, its luminosity temporarily decreases. Apart from the formation of the inner convective shell, the flash also affects the location of the inner edge of the convective envelope that moves deeper into the star when the carbon luminosity increases and receeds when the carbon luminosity decreases again, very much in the same fashion as in the isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ star.

The second flash occurs at a smaller mass coordinate (carbon is re–ignited at the point where the penetration of the inner edge of the previous convective shell was maximum) and the physical mechanisms operating are very similar to those of the first one. However, its maximum strength is considerably smaller ($`10^7L_{}`$ instead of $`10^8L_{}`$). After the most violent phase of this flash is over, the carbon luminosity does not decrease below that of helium but, rather, keeps a stationary value, $`\mathrm{log}(L_\mathrm{C}/L_{})4.6`$, which is slightly larger than the value of the helium luminosity, $`\mathrm{log}(L_{\mathrm{He}}/L_{})4.3`$. During this phase the carbon–burning flame propagates inwards at a roughly constant speed — see García–Berro et al. (1997) for a detailed description of the energy balance established during this phase — reaching the center at $`t7.282\times 10^{14}`$ s.

A very distinctive feature of the case studied here when compared to the evolution of an isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ star is that at $`t7.278\times 10^{14}`$ s the outer convective envelope disappears as the carbon burning front advances to the center. In fact, the second dredge–up in the isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ star is caused by the expansion and cooling of the layers just below the base of the convective envelope (García–Berro et al. 1997), which allows the increase of the radiative temperature gradient in this region and, so, the inner advance of convection down to $`M_\mathrm{r}1.2M_{}`$. After that, the base of the convective envelope remains at an approximately constant position, as the energy supplied by the helium burning shell and the opacity of the nearby layers can keep the temperature gradient high enough. In the case studied here, the base of the convective envelope reaches the same position as in the single star due to a similar mechanism, but, unlike the case of the isolated 9 $`M_{}`$ star, this position cannot be maintained, instead, it receeds and disappears. The reason for this behaviour can be explained with the help of figures 10 and 11, where we show some relevant structural and dynamical quantities for times $`t=7.277763\times 10^{14}`$ s, just before the disappearance of the convective envelope, and $`t=7.278391\times 10^{14}`$ s, just after the convective episode.

Panel c of figure 10 shows that there are three interesting and distinct regions in the star. The first of these regions is below the helium discontinuity and there, the work of expansion fed by carbon burning is devoted basically to lift degeneracy and, thus, we have expansion at almost constant temperature (panel b). On top of this region we have the helium burning shell where the energy supplied by nuclear reactions is used to build up the luminosity profile (panel a). In the region between the helium burning shell and the base of the convective envelope, the flux is partially transformed into heating and, at the same time, the whole region is collapsing. This in turn causes a large temperature gradient at $`M_\mathrm{r}1.7M_{}`$. As the evolution continues, the temperature in this region steadily increases. Thus, the temperature gradient ultimately flattens and the inner edge of the convective envelope consequently receeds. Panel c of figure 11 shows that the nuclear energy released by the helium burning shell remains the same, but now most of this energy merely flows outwards (panel a), rather than being transformed into work of expansion. Instead, the whole region on top of the helium burning shell is compressed leading to a non–homogeneous increase of the temperature (panel b) which effectively erases the temperature gradient and forces the disappearance of the convective region. This translates into an increase in the luminosity for $`M_\mathrm{r}1.4M_{}`$.

When carbon–burning in the central regions is over, a series of small shell burning episodes occurs (Fig. 9). Each one of these episodes has a decreasing strength and leads to the almost complete exhaustion of carbon in a core of 1.05 $`M_{}`$. It is interesting to note that, unlike what happens with the rest of these mild flashes, the first of these is not accompanied by a substantial decrease in the helium luminosity. The reason for this behaviour is twofold. Firstly, the duration of this flash is smaller and, hence, less energy is released. Secondly, and most important, there exists a thick radiative layer (of about 0.7 $`M_{}`$) between the initial location of the convective carbon–burning shell and the helium–burning shell. Therefore, the energy is almost totally absorbed before reaching the helium–burning shell and, thus, no expansion nor cooling of the helium burning shell are produced. During all this phase the core contracts, and the outer layers of the star begin a new expansion as the outer convective envelope reappears and its inner edge advances to the interior of the star. However, the radius of the star remains below the Roche lobe radius and only exceeds its value at the end of the second of these flashes.

Since, as discussed above, the second mass loss episode was most probably conservative and during the bulk of the carbon burning phase in the central regions (say $`t7.282\times 10^{14}`$ s) the model star keeps its radius below that of the Roche lobe, the orbital parameters remain unaffected. As explained before, only at the very end of the carbon burning phase the flash activity is accompanied by a rapid increase of the surface radius of the star beyond the Roche lobe radius. This, of course, translates into a new mass loss episode for $`t7.283\times 10^{14}`$ s. This mass loss episode lasts for a short period of time, of about $`2\times 10^{11}`$ s and the mass loss rates are of $`10^4M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at the beginning of the episode, becoming much smaller as the evolution proceeds. After this short phase of Roche lobe overflow, the radius of the primary star turns out to be very large, but its rate of increase slows down considerably. At this evolutionary stage, the density of the extended envelope is so small that a stellar wind could also drive the loss of the remaining envelope. In any case, stellar winds play a significant role which can be comparable to Roche lobe overflow. Thus, we assume that a stellar wind removes mass from the surface following closely the parametrization of Nieuwenheuzen and de Jager (1990) which gives typical rates of $`5\times 10^7M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (this is the rate considered in Fig. 9). However, since these mass loss rates are poorly known, we have conducted a series of numerical experiments where we have changed the mass loss rate from $`10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ to $`10^7M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ and we have found essentially the same results for the very final part of the carbon burning phase, except of course for the mass of the remaining helium envelope.

The exhaustion of central carbon is not complete but, instead, at the innermost 0.3 $`M_{}`$ there remains remains a small amount of unburnt carbon, reaching a maximum abundance of $`X_\mathrm{C}=0.025`$ at $`M_\mathrm{r}=0.25M_{}`$ (see Fig. 12). Analogous to what was found in the series of papers devoted to the evolution of isolated stars within this mass range, most of the ashes of carbon burning are sodium, neon and oxygen, the abundance of magnesium being very small. This could have important consequences for the accretion–induced collapse scenario (Gutiérrez et al., 1996). It is also noteworthy that the relatively thick carbon–rich buffer is located just below the helium envelope, which could make the resulting He–rich white dwarf practically indistinguishable from an observational point of view from a regular massive carbon–oxygen white dwarf (Weidemann 2000).

## 5 Summary and discussion

We have followed the evolution of a $`10M_{}`$ primary component of solar metallicity belonging to a close binary system with a secondary of low or intermediate–low mass, from its main sequence phase until carbon is exhausted in the core and a degenerate remnant is formed. Our main goal consisted of extending the previously existing calculations of this kind of system in order to follow in full detail the carbon burning phase, which at present has not yet been well studied. We have found that the primary star undergoes three mass–loss episodes. The first of these episodes occurs after hydrogen exhaustion in the core and most problably is not conservative, due to the existence of a deep convective envelope which leads to the formation of a common envelope. The second happens after helium exhaustion, and it is most problably conservative. Finally, the third one occurs when carbon burning in a series of succesive shells sets in. We have analysed the changes in the structure and composition that the primary star suffers while simultaneously undergoing carbon burning and mass loss. The determination of the mass loss rates at this very late stage of the evolution, whether due to Roche lobe overflow, or to stellar winds, is still an open question, and therefore, we have explored a broad range of mass loss rates ranging from $`10^7`$ to $`10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ in order to understand how the uncertainties affect the gross properties of the resulting degenerate object. We have found that our incomplete knowledge of the mass–loss rate does not affect the final result as far as the core is concerned. In particular, carbon is not reignited. Thus, the final characteristics of the remnant are well determined. After the evolution through these different burning stages and under the influence of a close companion, the initially $`10M_{}`$ star will form a $`1.1M_{}`$ degenerate remnant, with an oxygen–neon core of $`0.9M_{}`$ surrounded by a carbon–oxygen rich mantle of $`0.2M_{}`$ and a thin helium envelope.

We have found remarkable differences between our results and those found by other authors that have also followed the evolution of a 10 $`M_{}`$ model star up to the carbon burning phase. For instance, Nomoto (1982, 1984) obtained a final core of larger mass ($`1.3M_{}`$) with significantly higher values for the abundances Ne20 and Mg24, and lower values for the O16 and Na23 abundances. The ultimate reason for this difference is that the nuclear reaction rates used by Nomoto (Fowler, Caughlan & Zimmermann, 1975) are different from ours (Caughlan & Fowler, 1988). In this regard, it is important to recall here that in this paper we have chosen the same physical inputs as in Ritossa, García–Berro & Iben (1996) in order to remain consistent with our previous calculations. Since then there have been some new determinations of the thermonuclear reaction rates, particularly the NACRE compilation (Angulo et al., 1999). However, for the most important reaction channels involved in carbon burning, the differences are not expected to be large and, thus, the chemical composition of the core can be considered as relatively safe, perhaps the most important expected difference being an even smaller amount of Mg24 (Palacios et al., 2000; José, Coc & Hernanz, 1999). The comparison with the ONe core obtained by Domínguez et al. (1993) it is not easy either, since they start from a different initial CO core prior to carbon burning. Moreover, they removed the outer envelope during the carbon burning phase and, hence, their treatment for this phase differs substantially from ours. This, in particular, could be the reason for the central region of unburnt carbon which is quite apparent in their results, although poor mass resolution of the central regions — see the discussion in García–Berro et al. (1997) — cannot be totally discarded. Regarding the average abundances of the ONe core, they obtained, using similar nuclear reaction rates, $`X(\mathrm{O}^{16})=0.72`$, $`X(\mathrm{Ne}^{20})=0.25`$ and $`X(\mathrm{Mg}^{24})=0.03`$. The high value of the O16 abundance is surprising, whereas the rest of the abundances are similar. Moreover, they did not find Na23, which is an important isotope in our calculations. Thus, all these differences could be due to the use of a simplified nuclear network, much smaller than ours. In summary, the composition of our ONe core differs from the former results, especially for the Mg24, Na23 and Ne20 nuclei, which are the elements onto which electron captures happen and, consequently, may substantially affect the determination of the explosive ONe ignition density. The fact that the mass of the ONe core found by these authors ($`0.93M_{}`$) is quite similar to that obtained here is, however, encouraging.

The definite final result is not necessarily an oxygen–neon white dwarf, because the evolution of the entire system has not stopped yet. In fact, as the secondary component evolves, it could reach such a dimension that its radius could exceed that of its Roche lobe, and mass transfer could take place onto the remnant. Depending on the evolution of the orbital parameters and, ultimately, on the mass transfer rates, different possibilities arise:

1. A cataclysmic variable could be formed, if the accretion rates are below the critical rates for hydrogen burning. At typical accretion rates of about $`10^9M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ onto such a white dwarf, the amount of hydrogen–rich material from the secondary that must be accreted before an outburst occurs ranges between $`10^4`$ — see, for instance, José & Hernanz (1998) and references therein — and $`10^5M_{}`$ (Schwartzman et al., 1994). If we accept the results of Iben and Fujimoto (1992) that significant hydrogen abundance extends in a mixture with the degenerate material down to a distance of about $`10^5M_{}`$ under the surface, and that approximately $`2\times 10^5M_{}`$ are expelled during each outburst, we conclude that between 3 000 and 4 000 outburts (in a total time of at least 3–4 Myr) must occur before the white dwarf is definitely deprived of its $`0.035M_{}`$ CO rich layer, and so, before significant amounts of Ne20 can be detected in the expelled material.
2. If stable accretion is possible, the degenerate object can increase its mass up to the Chandrasekhar mass, finally leading to a weak supernova explosion, activating the accretion–induced collapse scenario and leaving a neutron star. A possible observational counterpart for this outcome could be the massive radio pulsar PSR J0045-7319 (Kaspi et al. 1994), which belongs to a binary system in which its companion is an intermediate mass ($`M4M_{}`$) B star. More evolved systems may include an intermediate mass binary system consisting of a pulsar and a white dwarf. In this sense, up to seven pulsars with these characteristics have recently been discovered (Edwards & Bailes, 2001). In particular, we consider PSR J1756-5322 as a very likely counterpart because the mass of the white dwarf component is $`0.55M_{}`$.
3. Finally, if the mass transfer rates are so large that the white dwarf is not able to accrete all the mass lost of its companion, a common envelope would form again, and most of the mass would be lost by the system, leaving an ONe white dwarf belonging to a close binary system. A possible observational counterpart to this outcome is IK Peg (Smalley et al., 1996), which is a confirmed binary system composed of an unevolved star plus a massive white dwarf $`(M_{\mathrm{WD}}1.15M_{})`$, possibly made of oxygen and neon.

###### Acknowledgements.

Part of this work was supported by the Spanish DGES project number PB98–1183–C03–02, by the MCYT grant AYA2000–1785, by the CIRIT and by Sun MicroSystems under the Academic Equipment Grant AEG–7824–990325–SP. We also wish to thank J. José for carefully reading the manuscript and to our referee (P.P. Eggleton) for his very valuable comments and suggestions.