Disk mass estimates in a binary system

Abstract

The consequences of the conservation of the Jacobi constant (CJ) are studied here analytically for a circular binary system. The main result is that for every particle there are prohibited and allowed zones. This scheme is valid with the inclusion of interactions between the particles in the orbital plane of the binary system; this means that CJ and the allowed-prohibited configuration space are time-dependent. The formation and initial evolution of a disk around an isolated star is interpreted according to this work. We extend this model for the case where there is a small secondary star and argue that observational estimates of the ratio between circumprimary and circumbinary disk masses are consistent with a set of SPH simulations in which the ratio between the separation of the stars and the disk radius is the parameter that varies. GW Ori is used as an example.