Speaker
Description
The properties of binaries hosting a Wolf-Rayet star and a compact object
(black hole or neutron star) suggest that such systems could be the progen-
itors of binary compact objects merging via gravitational wave emission. It
is difficult to distinctively determine the road leading to these mergers: many
stellar and binary physical models are still poorly constrained and introduce
uncertainties in the interpretation of the possible formation pathways. With
the population-synthesis code SEVN, we quantified the impact of different as-
sumptions on metallicity, common envelope efficiency, core-collapse supernova
and natal kick models on the evolution of a binary population representative
of the one observed in the Milky Way. Within the considered parameter space
and for metallicity Z ≥ 0.0014, we found that more than 99% of merging bi-
nary compact objects had a progenitor in the Wolf-Rayet - compact object
configuration. Some of them exhibit properties similar to Cyg X-3, the only
Wolf-Rayet – compact object candidate in the Milky Way. Future observa-
tions of Wolf-Rayet – compact object systems could be the "Rosetta stone" to
calibrate models for the formation of binary compact objects.
