Is a supernova powerful enough to destroy the other star in a binary system? (This question was originally posted via World Building, but I was instructed to post it here)
https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/109457/is-a-supernova-powerful-to-destroy-the-other-star-in-a-binary-system?noredirect=1#comment332775_109457

The question is basically the same:

Can a binary star system have one of the two stars go supernova in the first place, and if so:

The first scenario would be:


Star A of the binary swells to red giant status, and then is either
touching or consumes star B: what would happen?


Scenario 2:


Star A goes supernova, with maybe 1 AU of distance between it and
Star B. 


What info Id like to know:


Can it destroy the other star via supernova? 
What is the effective    range of the supernova, and can it destroy
stars a light year or more    away?
The gravitational binding energy of a solar mass star of uniform density is $3GM^2/5R = 2.2774\times 10^{41}$ Joule. The energy of a typical supernova is $10^{44}$ J. So it looks at first glance like the explosion could disperse the other star...

...except that this assumes more than a thousandth of the supernova energy is absorbed and does work on the star. If the other star is more than 16 stellar radii away then it will definitely not be hit by this much energy. And even if it is close enough, converting radiation to mass lift is not going to be efficient. The nova will mainly heat up the surface layer down a few optical depths, meaning a few thousand kilometers get very hot but it is doubtful this does more than push the star away a bit and induces some wobble.