Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Mass loss can affect the evolution of binaries in various ways, during different stages of the evolution.
1. For massive stars stellar wind mass loss will change the masses of the components during their main sequence evolution.
2. During the Roche lobe overflow phase (or tidal interaction phase) matter can leave the system.
3. For low mass stars matter can leave the system during the mass exchange phase and can be stored in envelopes, disks or rings.
4. Sufficiently massive stars(>8-15M0) undergo at the end of their life a supernova explosion, where most of the matter is blown away and a compact object, a neutron star or a black hole can be left.
5. For intermediate stars one of the components can evolve into a degenerate He or CO dwarf; a reverse mass transfer can dump matter on this degenerate dwarf. If the conditions are favorable the white dwarf can explode with loss of matter, and a neutron star can be the result.
6. The chemical abundances in the outer layers change.