Final common envelope ejection by migration and jets

Abstract

I summarize recent analytical and numerical studies of the common envelope (CE) process and suggest to replace the commonly used alpha-prescription for the CE ejection by a prescription based on final migration and jets launched by the companion or the core of the giant stellar primary. In the migration process the core-companion binary systems is surrounded by a highly oblate (flatten) envelope, a thick circumbinary disk, formed by the large angular momentum transferred from the core-companion system to the envelope. I then show that the energy that can be released by an accreting main sequence companion can surpass the mutual gravitational energy of the core and the companion. An efficient channel to leash the accretion energy to expel the CE is through jets operating via a feedback mechanism (JFM).