Transients from Common Envelope Events and Stellar Mergers

It is becoming an observational reality to catch common envelope and stellar coalescence events -- where one star in a binary system evolves to engulf its companion -- in action with time domain surveys. These data are beginning to constrain long-standing theoretical uncertainties surrounding mass ejection in common envelope phases and its role in transforming binary star systems. I will discuss an effort to understand these events through the synthesis of observational advances with new hydrodynamic simulation models.