Interacting Winds and Sub-BHL Accretion in Massive Binaries

Massive stars eject strong winds that affect their evolution. When in a binary system, their winds collide and emit radiation across the spectrum, providing an opportunity to study the stars and the interaction between them. There are many physical effects involved in the colliding wind problem, and its complexity requires 3D numerical simulations. We run simulations of colliding winds in massive binary systems that include a detailed treatment of wind ejection, orbital motion, clumpiness, and other effects. These simulations are applied to different kinds of massive binaries, including LBV-WR, WR-WR, WR-O, and O-O systems. Our systematic simulations that were used to determine the general conditions that may lead to accretion onto the star with the weaker wind, and demonstrate new relationships between the mass accretion rate and the ratio of the stellar wind momentum and the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) accretion rate.