Feasibility of stable non-conservative mass transfer for the systems considered

Investigate whether stable non-conservative mass transfer can occur in the white-dwarf–main-sequence binaries considered in this study under alternative prescriptions for mass and angular-momentum loss (parameters α, β, δ, and γ), and identify any parameter regimes that avoid dynamical instability.

Background

The paper tests stability of mass transfer with binary and single-star MESA models and generally finds instability for RGB/AGB donors at the relevant mass ratios, while SGB donors may transfer stably but would not yield the observed white dwarf masses.

However, the analysis assumes a specific non-conservative prescription (mass lost from the vicinity of the accretor with β=1) and does not explore the broader space of mass and angular-momentum loss parameters. The authors therefore cannot rule out the possibility that other prescriptions might permit stable mass transfer.