Compact binaries: formation and outcomes
Compact binaries are interesting in several ways: they are good radio-sources in the presence of a pulsar, mass transferring binaries may be observed as bright UV or X-ray sources, while merging compact binaries can lead to a diversity of optical transients. Moreover, they are the only gravitational wave sources observed so far, and they also serve as an excellent testbed for binary stellar evolution. First, I will describe how white dwarf-neutron star binaries form and lead to a diversity of electromagnetic transients, and then I will present our recent work on double white dwarf binaries and the transients they produce.