Constraining occurrence rates of short-period post-common envelope binaries

During the giant stage of stellar evolution, a star’s radius can expand to several AU. If it happens to be in a binary configuration, then it can engulf its companion into a shared envelope. This phase during binary evolution is called common envelope (CE) and it remains a poorly understood process, yet there is evidence that most close-in binaries have undergone this stage. We model the population of close-in binaries with compact objects to explore the efficiency and occurrence rate of common envelope evolution. We evolve binary systems from the main sequence, through CE and supernova stages using a combination of stellar evolution prescriptions. We obtain a prediction of occurrence rates as a function of orbital period and mass. We test and improve the fitting of our model by using the 4,584 observed post-common envelope binaries compiled in the recently published TESS Eclipsing Binaries (EB) catalog. In brief, we will be able to assess the likelihood of observing said system configurations with surveys like TESS. This analysis could be extended to the formation and evolution of other stellar objects and companions like brown dwarfs and exoplanets.