Asymmetric Accretion Flows within a Common Envelope

Understand

This paper examines flows in the immediate vicinity of stars and compact objects dynamically inspiralling within a common envelope (CE).

• Flow in the vicinity of the embedded object is gravitationally focused leading to drag and potential to gas accretion.
• This process has been studied numerically and analytically in the context of Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion (HLA).
• Yet, within a CE, accretion structures may span a large fraction of the envelope radius, and in so doing sweep across a substantial radial gradient of density.