Contact Discontinuities in Models of Contact Binaries Undergoing Thermal Relaxation Oscillations

Abstract

In this paper we pursue the suggestion by Shu, Lubow & Anderson (1979) and Wang (1995) that contact discontinuity (DSC) may exist in the secondary in the expansion TRO (thermal relaxation oscillation) state. It is demonstrated that there is a mass exchange instability in some range of mass ratio for the two components. We show that the assumption of {\it constant} volume of the secondary should be relaxed in DSC model. For {\it all} mass ratio the secondary alway satisfies the condition that no mass flow returns to the primary through the inner Lagrangian point. The secondary will expand in order to equilibrate the interaction between the common convective envelope and the secondary. The contact discontinuity in contact binary undergoing thermal relaxation does not violate the second law of thermodynamics. The maintaining condition of contact discontinuity is derived in the time-dependent model. It is desired to improve the TRO model with the advanced contact discontinuity layer in future detailed calculations.