Grid of investigated initial orbital periods and masses for main-sequence donor stars with a metallicity of Z = 0.02 (upper panel) and Z = 0.001 (lower panel). The grey shaded region in each panel corresponds to systems which successfully evolve to the AIC stage (green circles). The blue triangles and purple asterisks correspond to cases where the mass-transfer rate was too high or too low, respectively, to allow for the WD to reach a critical mass of 1.48 M_⊙. The red squares indicate orbits which are too narrow to initially accommodate the ZAMS donor star. The blue triangles inside green circles in the upper panel are systems leading successfully to AIC assuming Ṁ_CE = 10 Ṁ_Edd,WD. Details of the mass-transfer process of the binaries inside the marked cross in the upper panel are represented in Figs. 4 and 5.