A Hydrodynamic Study of Stellar Wind Accretion in S-type Symbiotic Stars

Symbiotic stars are wide binary systems of a white dwarf and a mass losing giant, exhibiting various activities mainly attributed to accretion of a fraction of slow stellar wind emanating from the giant. We perform 3 dimensional hydrodynamical simulations using the FLASH code to investigate the formation and physical structures of an accretion disk in symbiotic stars with binary separation in the range of 2-4 au. Radiative cooling is introduced in the flow in order to avoid acute pressure increase in the vicinity of the accretor that may prevent stable disk formation. By setting the same density condition in front of the bow shock generated in two different velocity fields, the role of ram pressure balancing between the disk and the wind is examined. We find that three main streams (direct stream from the giant, stream following the accretion wake, and stream passing through the bow shock front) all feed the disk, and their individual contributions on the mass accretion onto the white dwarf are explored.