In: Physics
Two stars of mass M1 and M2<M1 are orbiting eachother in a circular orbit. The heavy star experiences a supernova explosion, losing most of its mass in a spherically symmetric outflow (i.e. without losing angular momentum) and leaving behind a small neutron star of mass MNS. Show that if the mass lost is larger then half of the total mass of the system, the binary is disrupted.