POSYDON: A General-Purpose Population Synthesis Code with Detailed Binary-Evolution Simulations

Authors:

Fragos, Andrews, Bavera, Berry, Coughlin, Dotter, Giri, Kalogera, Katsaggelos, Kovlakas, Lalvani, Misra, Srivastava, Qin, Rocha, Roman-Garza, Serra, Stahle, Sun, Teng, Trajcevski, Tran, Xing,Zapartas, Zevin (2022)

Abstract:

Most massive stars are members of a binary or a higher-order stellar systems, where the presence of a binary companion can decisively alter their evolution via binary interactions. Interacting binaries are also important astrophysical laboratories for the study of compact objects. Binary population synthesis studies have been used extensively over the last two decades to interpret observations of compact-object binaries and to decipher the physical processes that lead to their formation. Here, we present POSYDON, a novel, binary population synthesis code that incorporates full stellar-structure and binary-evolution modeling, using the MESA code, throughout the whole evolution of the binaries. The use of POSYDON enables the self-consistent treatment of physical processes in stellar and binary evolution, including: realistic mass-transfer calculations and assessment of stability, internal angular-momentum transport and tides, stellar core sizes, mass-transfer rates and orbital periods. The first version of POSYDON targets binaries with massive primary stars (potential progenitors of neutron stars or black holes) at solar metallicity.

The POSYDON logo (see posydon.org).