Hydrodynamic Response of Mildly Evolved Common Envelope Donors in Luminous Red Novae

Abstract

Luminous red novae trace unstable binary interactions in which common-envelope evolution can produce either a stellar merger or a surviving binary following envelope ejection. Recent population studies suggest that a substantial fraction of these systems originate from mildly evolved donors whose structures occupy an intermediate regime between simplified polytropic envelopes and highly stratified giant stars. We present a suite of three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of mildly evolved donors interacting with embedded companions spanning a range of mass ratios and central density concentrations. We show that the hydrodynamic evolution is strongly regulated by the donor central concentration, parameterized by the ratio $ρ_c/\barρ$. Donors with similar values of $ρ_c/\barρ$ exhibit similar inspiral morphologies and mass-ejection histories despite substantial differences in stellar mass and radius. Systems with relatively modest central concentration undergo rapid inspiral dominated by local orbital-energy deposition, while more centrally concentrated donors develop prolonged expansion-driven phases in which shocks and large-scale envelope motions redistribute deposited energy and angular momentum throughout the star. In this regime, the envelope itself becomes dynamically important in driving continued mass loss long after the rapid plunge-in phase slows. These results challenge semi-analytic models of luminous red novae that assume nearly instantaneous envelope ejection and suggest that their observed diversity may depend not only on total ejecta mass, but also on the temporal structure of the outflow.