Erythrohenosis -- The crimson chronicles of two giants
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866911388766568448 |
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| author | Seoane, Pau Amaro |
| author_facet | Seoane, Pau Amaro |
| contents | We investigate erythrohenosis -- the collision and merger of two red giants -- establishing an end-to-end model for this fundamental evolutionary channel in dense stellar environments. Combining three-dimensional SPH simulations of a binary with analytical modeling, we characterize the event from initial encounter to terminal explosion. We demonstrate that grazing encounters induce tidal capture and rapid orbital decay, accompanied by large-amplitude, nonlinear stellar oscillations. The subsequent inspiral spins up the common envelope into a stable, non-spherical equilibrium, powering a luminous precursor with quasi-periodic bursts. The terminal explosion, modeled with angular momentum conservation, produces an intrinsically flattened remnant that preserves a geometric memory, or morphomnesia, of its binary origin. The associated gravitational wave signal features a rapid, drag-dominated frequency evolution, identifiable by a unique time-varying apparent chirp mass. These results define a distinctive multi-stage observational fingerprint -- linking transient optical precursors, asymmetric nebulae, and anomalous gravitational wave chirps -- to guide identification in current and future multi-messenger surveys. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14408 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Erythrohenosis -- The crimson chronicles of two giants Seoane, Pau Amaro High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics We investigate erythrohenosis -- the collision and merger of two red giants -- establishing an end-to-end model for this fundamental evolutionary channel in dense stellar environments. Combining three-dimensional SPH simulations of a binary with analytical modeling, we characterize the event from initial encounter to terminal explosion. We demonstrate that grazing encounters induce tidal capture and rapid orbital decay, accompanied by large-amplitude, nonlinear stellar oscillations. The subsequent inspiral spins up the common envelope into a stable, non-spherical equilibrium, powering a luminous precursor with quasi-periodic bursts. The terminal explosion, modeled with angular momentum conservation, produces an intrinsically flattened remnant that preserves a geometric memory, or morphomnesia, of its binary origin. The associated gravitational wave signal features a rapid, drag-dominated frequency evolution, identifiable by a unique time-varying apparent chirp mass. These results define a distinctive multi-stage observational fingerprint -- linking transient optical precursors, asymmetric nebulae, and anomalous gravitational wave chirps -- to guide identification in current and future multi-messenger surveys. |
| title | Erythrohenosis -- The crimson chronicles of two giants |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14408 |