Spectral models for binary products

Stars stripped of their hydrogen-rich envelope through interaction with a binary companion are generally not considered when accounting for ionizing radiation from stellar populations, despite the expectation that stripped stars emit hard ionizing radiation, form frequently, and live 10-100 times longer than single massive stars. We compute the first grid of evolutionary and spectral models specially made for stars stripped in binaries for a range of progenitor masses (2-20M_{sun}_) and metallicities ranging from solar to values representative for pop II stars.

For stripped stars with masses in the range 0.3-7M_{sun}_, we find consistently high effective temperatures (20000-100000K, increasing with mass), small radii (0.2-1R_{sun}_), and high bolometric luminosities, comparable to that of their progenitor before stripping. The spectra show a continuous sequence that naturally bridges subdwarf-type stars at the low-mass end and Wolf-Rayet-like spectra at the high-mass end. For intermediate masses we find hybrid spectral classes showing a mixture of absorption and emission lines.