Achievement

IGERT fellow Wesley Even and collaborators developed a self consistent field (SCF) technique that can be used to construct detailed force-balanced models of synchronously rotating, double white dwarf binaries (DWD). This SCF technique can be used to construct model sequences that mimic the last portion of the detached inspiral phase of DWD binary evolutions, and semi-detached model sequences that mimic a phase of conservative mass transfer. In addition, the SCF models can be used to provide quiet initial starts for dynamical studies of the onset of mass transfer in DWD systems. These are among the first white dwarf merger simulations carried out using a grid-based hydrodynamics technique and a realistic equation of state. Where there is overlap, our results compare favorably to simulations that have been previously published by other groups but carried out using smooth particle hydrodynamics techniques.