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Interacting binaries are of general interest as laboratories forinvestigating the physics of accretion, which gives rise to the bulk ofhigh-energy radiation in the Galaxy. They allow us to probe stellar evolutionprocesses that cannot be studied in single stars. Understanding the orbitalevolution of binaries is essential in order to model the formation of compactbinaries. Here we focus our attention on studying orbital evolution driven byangular momentum loss through stellar winds in massive binaries. We run a suiteof hydrodynamical simulations of binary stars hosting one mass losing star withvarying wind velocity, mass ratio, wind velocity profile and adiabatic index,and compare our results to analytic estimates for drag and angular momentumloss. We find that, at leading order, orbital evolution is determined by thewind velocity and the binary mass ratio. Small ratios of wind to orbitalvelocities and large accreting companion masses result in high angular momentumloss and a shrinking of the orbit. For wider binaries and binaries hostinglighter mass-capturing companions, the wind mass-loss becomes more symmetric,which results in a widening of the orbit. We present a simple analytic formulathat can accurately account for angular momentum losses and changes in theorbit, which depends on the wind velocity and mass ratio. As an example of ourformalism, we compare the effects of tides and winds in driving the orbitalevolution of high mass X-ray binaries, focusing on Vela X-1 and Cygnus X-1 asexamples.

The Evolution of Binaries under the Influence of Radiation-Driven Winds from a Stellar Companion