Structure of the circumbinary envelope around a young binary system

The structure of a circumstellar envelope around a young binary T Tauri star is considered. The supersonic orbital motion of the system components in the envelope gas leads to the formation of bow shocks around the star. Two- and three-dimensional numerical modeling indicates an important role of these shocks in the formation of the structure of the circumbinary envelope. In particular, for systems with circular orbits, the size of the central region of the envelope that is not filled with matter (the “gap”) is essentially determined by the parameters of the bow shocks. These modeling results are supported by comparisons of the obtained estimates for the gap parameters with observations.