Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T14:23:11.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Can Pre-Main Sequence Binary Star Populations Tell Us about Binary Formation Mechanisms?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Andrea M. Ghez*
Affiliation:
University of California Los Angeles Department of Physics and Astronomy Los Angeles, CA 90095–1562

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

We review current observations of binary star populations with particular attention to what insight these populations can give us into the problem of how binary stars form. Significant progress has been made in the past few years, revealing variations as a function of site, primary star mass, and binary star separations. The variations in the binary star population with type of star formation site in comparison with the field, suggests that ∼30% of the field binaries formed in loose T associations and ∼70% formed in the dense progenitors of open clusters. Variations with mass and separation on the whole are well matched by the predictions of fragmentation followed by competitive accretion. However, there remains much work to be done on both the observational and theoretical end before a complete picture of binary star formation can be developed.

Information

Type
VI. Binary Populations in Young Clusters
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001