A numerical hydrodynamic study of coalescence in head-on collisions of identical stars

Abstract

A two-dimensional hydrodynamic code has been developed for numerical studies of stellar collisions. The motivation for the study has been the suggestion by Colgate that collisions among stars in a dense galactic core can lead to growth of stellar masses by coalescence and thus to an enhanced rate of supernova activity. The specific results reported here refer to head-on collisions between identical polytropes of index 3 having solar mass and radius. If the polytropes were initially at rest at infinity, then about five percent of the combined mass is lost by ejection following collision. The volatilized mass fraction rises to about 18% for an initial relative collision velocity of 1000 km s−1 at infinite separation, and to about 60% for the 2000 km s−1 case. Since the initial kinetic and gravitational energies balance for a relative velocity of 1512 km s−1 at infinity, it may be seen that net coalescence persists to velocities somewhat in excess of this figure. Mass ejection takes place in two ways simultaneously: (1) by a rapid sideward expulsion of fluid in a massive lateral sheet normal to the collision axis, and (2) as a result of two recoil shocks which lead momentum flows backwards along this axis. The lateral effect has similarities to the expansion of gas into a vacuum; that is, shocks are not involved. However, the ejection of material from the rear colliding hemisphere due to the recoil shocks predominates at low collision velocities. As the velocity increases, both effects strengthen, but the lateral expulsion intensifies more rapidly than the recoil shocks.