Bridging the Gap between Luminous Red Novae and Common Envelope Evolution: The Role of Recombination Energy and Radiation Force

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Abstract
Luminous red novae and their connection to common envelope evolution (CEE) remain elusive in astrophysics. Here, we present a radiation hydrodynamic model capable of simulating the light curves of material ejected during a CEE. For the first time, the radiation hydrodynamic model incorporates complete recombination physics for hydrogen and helium. The radiation hydrodynamic equations are solved with Guangqi. With time-independent ejecta simulations, we show that the peaks in the light curves are attributed to radiation-dominated ejecta, while the extended plateaus are produced by matter-dominated ejecta. To showcase our model’s capability, we fit the light curve of AT 2019zhd. The central mass object of 6 M ⊙ is assumed based on observations and scaling relations. Our model demonstrates that the ejecta mass of AT 2019zhd falls within the range of 0.04–0.1 M ⊙. Additionally, we demonstrate that recombination energy and radiation force acceleration significantly impact the light curves, whereas dust formation has a limited effect during the peak and plateau phases.
Funding Information
  • MOST ∣ National Natural Science Foundation of China (12103028)
  • Canadian Government ∣ Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-04277)
  • Tsinghua University (Dushi Program)
  • MOST ∣ National Natural Science Foundation of China (12342501)

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